West Bromwich Albion maintained their place in the top six of the Championship with a 1-1 draw against Burnley at Turf Moor on Tuesday night.
The Baggies are fifth in the division, level on points with Coventry in sixth, and are two points ahead of Bristol City in seventh place, with nine games left to play.
Tony Mowbray’s side took the lead through John Swift but it only took three minutes for the hosts to equalise, as Joe Wildsmith inexplicably dropped the ball in front of Zian Flemming for a tap-in.
It was a well-earned point for the Baggies, whose hosts were given a red card at the final whistle for a cynical trip by CJ Egan-Riley, and that was down to several individual performances – including Swift’s.
John Swift's performance against Burnley
The English central midfielder is a Championship stalwart who knows the league inside and out, and knows how to compete against the best teams.
Performance in Numbers
He also has the individual quality to produce moments of magic for his side, which is exactly what he did against Burnley. His free-kick to open the scoring in the 20th minute was a thing of beauty, as he found the top corner with a strike that left the exceptional James Trafford unable to even react.
Swift also provided a reliable outlet in possession for West Brom, completing 90% of his attempted passes on the night, but was not particularly influential off the ball, winning one tackle and being dribbled past once.
Despite opening the scoring and being efficient with his passes, the 29-year-old maestro was not the best player on the pitch for the Baggies. That acclaim belongs to central defender Torbjorn Heggem.
Torbjorn Heggem's best game for West Brom
The Norwegian central defender enjoyed his best evening in a West Brom shirt on Tuesday night against the Clarets with an exceptional defensive effort to help his team to secure a point at Turf Moor.
Heggem has started all 37 of the club’s matches in the Championship this season and provided a consistent presence at the back for the Baggies, winning 66% of his duels in those games.
The 27-year-old colossus put in his best showing of those 37 appearances against Burnley, though, as he excelled in and out of possession all night.
There was little he could have done to prevent the only goal that West Brom conceded, as his goalkeeper let the team down with his mistake, but he did his best to ensure that the hosts did not find the back of the net multiple times.
Minutes
90
Pass accuracy
96%
Clearances
16
Dribbled past
0x
Duel success rate
100% (3/3)
As you can see in the table above, Heggem completed an even higher percentage of his passes than Swift did, without being dribbled past a single time and winning all of his physical duels.
It was the first time this season that the Norwegian titan made more than nine clearances in a Championship game and the first time that he made nine or more clearances whilst also winning 100% of his duels.
This shows that the West Brom star was consistently in the right place at the right time to make vital interventions to prevent Burnley from creating more chances to trouble Wildsmith.
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He set a new career-high for clearances as a West Brom player, clearing his previous high by seven, whilst also being perfect in his physical battles, which illustrates both why it was his best performance for the club as well as why he was even better than Swift.
