Carlos Carvalhal has given a staunch defence of his work at Swansea City and insisted fans would have happily settled for their current plight when he first arrived at the start of the year.
The Swans manager has seen his team endure a six-match winless streak following Chelsea’s 1-0 victory at the Liberty Stadium on Saturday.
The five-point cushion they enjoyed over the relegation zone on the back of Carvahal’s early influence has now been whittled down to just one.
It means they can still be caught by all three of the clubs below them – Southampton, Stoke and West Brom – with only three games remaining.
But Carvalhal insisted: “When we arrived we were five points away from the teams above, we depended on others to try and get out of this position.
“ In this moment, we just depend on us. It’s something we have in our hands, something we didn’t have when we arrived.
“When we arrived, if you asked all the people to discuss staying in division in the last games, nobody would believe.
“But we have the things in our hands, we depend on us so, we must look to the games that we have – Bournemouth, Southampton and Stoke – and try to achieve the necessary points to stay in the division. We will do our job.”
The worrying thing for Swans supporters is that their team have lost momentum at the very time that those clubs beneath them have found theirs.
Two of them – West Brom and Southampton – both won at the weekend and Stoke earned a creditable draw at Liverpool.
Stoke are still three points adrift and have played a game more, whilst Huddersfield are only two points above the Swans, have a worse goal difference and their remaining games are against Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal.
Carvalhal added: “When we arrived, all the journalists used the word ‘miracle’ in their questions, do I think I will do a miracle? I remember very well that first day.
“Nobody believed we could jump positions. In this moment, the fixtures were not easy for us, in the last five games we have played four away with one home game. (Everton).
“We have at the end one away and two home games to achieve the point that we need.
“I’m very happy with the performance (against Chelsea), veyry happy with the commitment. My players played with the heart, and I’m happy with the fans, too.
“In this moment, all clubs are playing under pressure, and my team playing under pressure give a good answer.
“It is something very positive and if we play like that under pressure, the pressure is welcome because we play in a good way to stay in the division.”
There was urgency and desperation enough in Swansea’s game, but little quality in front of goal and the biggest mark left by top scorer Jordan Ayew was on the neck of Chelsea skipper Gary Cahill when he arrived with a late elbow, which referee Jonathan Moss somehow missed.
Both managers claimed it escaped their attention, too, and Carvalhal has bigger concerns right now. But he was more agitated by Moss’s refusal to award a penalty after a lunge by Cahill on Nathan Dyer.
“I saw it,” Carvalhal said. “The defender tries to get the ball but he doesn’t see Dyer. He takes the ball and Dyer together.
“Outside the area it’s a foul, so in the area it must be a penalty.
“In general I think we did enough to achieve minimum one point. If we carry on playing like that, it’s sure that we will win the points we need.”
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— Swansea City AFC (@SwansOfficial) April 28, 2018
“What we must do is keep the momentum of the performance in the last games, because if we play like that we will achieve necessary points to stay in the competition.
Chelsea’s goal for Cesc Fabregas was stunningly simple and alarmingly easy – the kind of cheap early goal managers hate to concede.
Andy King let the ball roll out of reach, leaving Eden Hazard to skip around Ki Sung-Yueng and slide a pass into the path of Fabregas who curled the ball beyond Lukasz Fabianski from inside the box.