Carlos Carvalhal Takes Swans Out Of Intensive Care . . . But Warns Against Relapse

Carlos Carvalhal may have breathed new life into Swansea City, but the manager has warned the club are still in danger of having their Premier League life snuffed out.

Two goals from Sam Clucas – and another from Jordan Ayew after a terrible mistake by Petr Cech – gave the Swans another priceless three points on Tuesday night with a 3-1 victory over Arsenal. It was enough to lift them from bottom spot to clear of the relegation zone.

Following on from the win over Liverpool, the club’s first back-to-back victories of the season have transformed the outlook, just as Carvalhal has transformed what appeared to be a broken squad.

But the Portuguese manager insisted there can be no relaxing if they are to remain clear of the bottom three – and warned that new arrivals on transfer deadline day are still not guaranteed.

After savouring his third Premier League victory in five games, Carvalhal said: “When I arrived at the club we were breathing like we were not well, but now after receiving some oxygen we come alive again! Now we are breathing and we are not dead anymore.

“You know that the word I kept hearing in my first press conference was the word ‘miracle.’

“Now we don’t achieve anything, but we are in a good way to achieve a good position.

“So far, the way the players are playing, the commitment that they show each other is really good. But at this moment we are still in a bad position.”

For the second successive match, Swansea were forced to often see little of the ball, but kept their shape and discipline.

Crucially, they were often able to break quickly on the counter-attack and when the chances arrived to both Clucas and Ayew they were expertly taken.

“I think we prepared very well all game, but if the players don’t believe in what we are doing then the result will be nothing, so all the credit goes to all my players,” added Carvalhal.

“We knew what will happen in this game, we knew and we talked about Arsenal, would be the team more with the ball, as they are against almost all the teams in the Premier League.

“But we blocked the dynamic of them because they played with a lot of players in between the lines and in between or defence and midfield but we blocked that dynamic very well.

“The players did really, really fantastic, when we were attacking and lost the ball, the players worked really hard in the transitions.

“Like Tottenham and Liverpool, when you lose the ball Arsenal react very, very fast and they can in those situations score or create goal chances.

Sam Clucas scored twice. Pic: Getty Images.

“So we prepare very well in these moments of the game, we put the ball out of pressure and Jordan Ayew did absolutely amazing to receive the ball and wait for the players from the second line, that was crucial.

“So we knew in our strategy that if we put the ball out of the pressure in the transitions we would create goal situations and we created four clear situations in the first half.

“In the second half it was difficult, they opened the game more and made things more difficult for our line of four in the middle to control situations.

“But we wait for our moment, we score and at the end, though they had more of the ball, we created more chances.

“On the other hand, I must give all the credit to my players, we scored three goals to win and are very happy with that.

“We are very happy. To win against Arsenal after beating Liverpool means I’m proud of my players. They deserve all the credit.

“We created more chances than them. I told the players we are ready to do something different and I said after the win at Watford we are not dead, we are breathing.

“We have a chance of staying up. We are not in intensive care, but we are not far away from the doctor saying we can go home.”