Ayew was awful in Swansea defeat vs PNE

Swansea’s promotion hopes took another huge blow on Easter Monday as they fell to a 1-0 defeat at home to Preston North End.

Steve Cooper’s side looked set to end their run of three consecutive defeats until Matt Grimes turned Scott Sinclair’s shot into his own net in injury time.

The Swans are now 10 points behind second-placed Watford and could soon drop out of the playoffs unless they see a dramatic upturn in form.

One man who disappointed with his performance at the Liberty Stadium was Andre Ayew.

As per SofaScore, the Ghana international would earn a shocking 6.3 match rating for his display, which was the worst of any Swansea player who started the game.

Was Ayew Swansea’s worst player vs Preston?

Yes

No

No

During his time on the pitch, the £3.6m-rated forward would manage just 13 passes and 30 touches, which is fewer than the 19 touches and 38 passes contributed by goalkeeper Freddie Woodman.

For context, Ayew has averaged 26.8 passes per game in the Championship so far this season, which emphasises just how much he struggled to get into the game on Monday.

The 30-year-old also failed to contribute a single shot, cross or key pass during the 90 minutes, whilst none of his three dribble attempts were successful, which suggests that the Preston defenders well and truly had the better of him.

Ayew would also win just 5/14 of his duels during the game, resulting in a less than impressive 36% success rate, with his failure to trouble the Preston backline emphasised by the fact that they all earned above a 7/10 rating for their display.

In a poor run of form for Swansea, where Ayew’s goals have often seen Cooper’s side pick up points late on, the last thing the manager needed was his top scorer to produce another shocking display and he will rightfully be fuming that his players have performed so poorly in recent fixtures.

And, in other news… Sold for £20m, 1 goal this season: Swansea sold PL flop at the perfect time