It Could Have Been Worse, Says Carlos Carvalhal . . . Stoke Could Have Won

Carlos Carvalhal insists Swansea City are still in control in their Premier League destiny, despite their crushing 5-0 defeat at Manchester City.

The Swans manager watched his team equal their biggest losing margin in the Premier League against the new champions in a game that was utterly one-sided.

The only consolation for Carvalhal was that Swansea remain four points clear of the drop zone in 17th with Stoke drawing with Burnley earlier on Sunday and Southampton in FA Cup action.

“We knew that and after all the games, we haven’t lost our position too much,” said Carvalhal.

“We are four points from the bottom with four games to play, some other teams have three so we have everything in our hands to stay in the Premier League.”

Pep Guardiola’s side were playing their first game since being crowned as champions last weekend, and blew away their opponents at the Etihad Stadium.

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It was a game that the Swansea boss knew would be difficult to get points from, although he seemed generally quite pleased to get away with only a five-goal losing margin.

“My assistant told me that this is the 14th time this season that Man City have won by more than three goals so they are from another planet in this competition. The level that they play is very high,” he told Sky Sports.

“With this game, we tried to play honestly, I think we organised the team very well but they discover places very easily. I saw with the first two goals, they discover places where the other teams usually have a lot of trouble trying to achieve those situations, the third is amazing from Kevin De Bruyne.

“I think we could have achieved one goal, we had three or four situations… I said before the game that it was the more difficult game of the competition and I knew exactly what I was talking about.

“They play at one level that when they play at this intensity, it is very difficult for a team like us to fight to stay on the ball and to play against them.”

“We know that in this time, it will be difficult to achieve points and if we achieve one point, it will be a big bonus,” Carvalhal added.