WHAT a difference five days makes.If not quite the villain of the piece at the Liberty Stadium on Tuesday night, Gareth Bale still hung his head after failing to take the golden chance which might have just seen Wales secure a famous World Cup victory over Croatia.
Bale blazed over from 12 yards and a 2-0 lead was spurned; top 10 ranked nation Croatia breaking Welsh hearts in the dying stages.
A few days on and it was Swansea who were made to pay as Bale sought to make up for that rare red-faced slip in front of goal.
Having set up Jan Vertonghen's seventh-minute opener with an exquisite pass, Bale gave Spurs precious breathing space with his 27th goal of a remarkable season for club and country.
And, like so many before, it was a stunning strike right out of the top drawer as he killed Vertonghen's pass with his right foot before sending the ball past a bemused Michel Vorm with the outside of his left.
At 2-0 down and with less than a quarter of the game gone it looked bleak for an out-of-sorts Swansea who had lost their last two games before the international break.
But Michael Laudrup's men rallied to such an extent that Spurs were hanging on by their fingernails after Michu halved the deficit with the 71st minute header that took his season's tally to 20.
Suddenly the customary crispness of Swansea's game was back as Spurs sought to take full advantage of Chelsea's slip at Southampton.
Nerves were now so wrought in the Spurs camp that fitness coach Jose Maria Rocha became embroiled in a heated argument with the Swansea bench after the ball was not returned to the field of play by the visitors.
Vertonghen and Michu were also involved in an unseemly spat as the temperature levels rose on a bitterly cold day and only the leniency of referee Anthony Taylor prevented a red card adding to the growing drama.
It was all a far cry from the opening stages which Spurs dominated at their leisure as Swansea, with Chico Flores back after a seven-week lay-off with ankle ligament damage and Dwight Tiendalli in for calf strain victim Angel Rangel, unusually struggled for possession.
Spurs had lost France goalkeeper Hugo Lloris to a swollen knee picked up on international duty but Brad Friedel was a spectator as the visitors started like a team determined to nail down a Champions League spot.
Swansea were low on confidence and did not seem refreshed by the international break, the home defence soon cut open by a move of sheer simplicity.
Vetonghen collected the ball on the halfway line and cut inside to find Bale. The Belgian simply kept running to control Bale's excellent pass and finish with a delightful left-footed finish.
It was football at its most clinical, yet Swansea will have been disappointed with defending that Chico quickly exposed after his enforced absence and Tiendalli slow to cover from his right-back station.
It might have got worse for Swansea before Michu headed over from a Jonathan de Guzman corner as Emmanuel Adebayor left Ashley Williams trailing in his wake but fired weakly at Michel Vorm in the home goal.
It might have been hard to take for Welsh fans with Bale's Crotia miss so fresh in the memory, but Vorm's reaction after he had been unable to steady himself suggested that he had witnessed genius at first-hand.
For the sake of the contest, it was a relief that Swansea reacted to the concession of a second goal far better than they had done to the first.
Nathan Dyer's stretching volley flew over, Tiendalli warmed Friedel's hands with a stinging drive and Ben Davies cut inside on his right to send a rising shot over the crossbar.
But Swansea's golden opportunity to shake Spurs arrived in the 35th minute when Tiendalli discovered space down the right to deliver a cross which found Dyer splitting centre-backs Vertonghen and Michael Dawson.
Even for a player not known for his aerial ability it seemed that the diminutive Dyer could not miss with the header.
But Dyer somehow sent it thudding onto the crossbar and the rebound just hit him before falling outside the post to safety much to Friedel's relief.
Wayne Routledge's quickly-taken free-kick gave Michu a sight of goal which was closed down by the sprawling Friedel.
An unpopular goal almost arrived when Gylfi Sigurdsson, making his first Liberty return since leaving Swansea last summer, cut inside onto his right foot to target the far post with a curling effort.
But Vorm, no doubt having seen the ploy in training, went early to punch away with his fist and comfortably held Bale's follow-up header.
Michu met Tiendalli's cross to put a header two yards wide and it did not seem as if it was going to be the big Spaniard's day.
But then substitute Ki Sung-Yueng swung over a corner and Michu judged the flight of the ball better than Dawson to set up a grandstand finish.
Even then, though, Bale almost had the last word when he intercepted a poor Pablo Hernandez pass and set off on a 60-yard run which ended with him hitting the outside of the post.
Swansea breathed a huge sigh of relief – but it would have been an incredible end to a hectic week for Bale had it gone in.
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