Carlos Carvalhal believes home is where Swansea City’s heart is – and that will be enough to keep them in the Premier League.
The Swans boss watched his side earn a precious point from a 1-1 draw at bottom club West Bromwich Albion on Saturday.
It may have been a scrappy and unconvincing display, but it has extended the gap between the Swans and the relegation zone to four points, although Southampton have a game in hand.
But four of the Swans’ remaining six matches are at home and Carvalhal said: “We have four games at home. Our team is better when he play at home, and I have a conviction that together we can achieve and stay in the Premier League.”
Carvalhal admitted he expected a tough game against West Brom, who were playing under caretaker manager Darren Moore, but the Portuguese boss was ultimately happy with a point.
“I am pleased with a point. We expected a difficult game with a change of manager.
“They are in a difficult position, and they made things difficult. We felt this during the game, they put some problems to us even though we controlled with our defensive organisation.
“We must do better when we’re on the ball, in the first half we knew that. In the second half, it was still the same, but after the goal, we reacted – we have a lot of strength in our head.
“The team’s reaction was fantastic. We were nearer to the opponent’s goal and did not gift too many opportunities to them.
“At the end, it’s one point. We are trying to collect them to achieve a good number at the end, and this is one more.”
A cagey affair at the Hawthorns came to life in the second half when Jay Rodriguez latched onto Salomon Rondon’s flick-on.
That woke Swansea up offensively, and with Tammy Abraham going on to earn Swansea a point with his first league goal since October, Carvalhal said he was far more pleased with the performance after they had gone a goal down.
“That team when we were losing 1-0 is more my team. It was more aggressive and they weren’t afraid,” Carvalhal admitted.
“Against Tottenham and Man United, our team played too much time without the ball, and they brought that a little here.
“It was not exactly like we wanted, we wanted to be more aggressive, but lucky for us we had time to react and earn a point.
“The big lesson we take is that we must play from the beginning, like we played after we conceded the first goal.”
