Nathan Dyer insists Swansea City’s current plight does not compare to their troubles at this stage last season.
The Swans winger will be part of a match-day squad that host Brighton on Saturday with the club only above the relegation zone through goal difference.
But whilst Everton and West Ham – the clubs either side of the Swans – are perceived to be in crisis, Dyer believes the problems at the Liberty Stadium are nowhere near as severe as a year ago during the dark, confused, and ignominious days of Bob Bradley.
“We’re not in crisis,” says Dyer who returned two weeks ago after a serious achilles tendon injury.
“If you look back at this time last year, the team were conceding five goals a game. That was serious.
“No-one here is panicking yet. If you look at the table, then there are six or seven clubs who have all made quite poor starts to the season.
“The team is short of confidence. What that can actually mean on the field is that players over-think things, instead of acting instinctively. It’s like a mental block.
“But that can go very quickly when you work hard and little things go your way.
“The reality is that although we haven’t been scoring easily, we are much better organised defensively than we were a year ago. Back then, we looked like we might concede a goal every time the opposition attacked.”
The Swans currently have eight points from 10 games, a tally that manager Paul Clement has conceded leaves them with work to do to reach their minimum target of 20 points from the first 19 Premier League matches and the halfway mark.
After 10 matches last season under former manager Bradley, the Swans were three points worse off with just five. But they had also conceded 18 goals, compared with 12 this season.
Dyer says that defensive improvement is cause for optimism that they can start to move away from the drop zone.
“The identity of the team has altered under Paul Clement. He worked very hard on our defence when he came in and you can see that with some of our away performances this season.
“We haven’t got it right at home and we have to work on that, but we’ve got a few new players who are still adjusting to the pace of the Premier League.
“Roque Mesa and Renato Sanches will come good, Wilfried Bony will add a lot when he’s fully fit, and Tammy Abraham is already showing the enthusiasm of youth and scoring goals. We have to make sure we supply him with more goal chances.”
Team news
Swansea
Swansea will make a late call on whether striker Wilfried Bony rejoins the squad for Brighton’s Premier League visit.
Summer signing Bony has not featured since the end of September because of a hamstring injury.
Leon Britton (illness), Martin Olsson (hamstring) and Renato Sanches (thigh) remain out but should return after the international break.
Provisional squad: Fabianski, Naughton, Fernandez, Mawson, Clucas, Ki, Carroll, Fer, Dyer, Ayew, Abraham, Nordfeldt, Rangel, Van der Hoorn, Rodon, Mesa, Narsingh, Fulton, Routledge, McBurnie.
Brighton
Brighton manager Chris Hughton has no fresh injury concerns ahead of his side’s trip to the Liberty Stadium to face Swansea on Saturday.
Midfielder Beram Kayal, who has been out of action since breaking his leg in a pre-season friendly in August, and striker Sam Baldock, who underwent calf surgery in the summer, are in contention to make their first-team returns.
Steve Sidwell is the only absentee as he continues his recovery from a back problem.
Provisional squad: Ryan, Krul, Maenpaa, Bruno, Bong, Dunk, Hunemeier, Goldson, Schelotto, Duffy, Rosenior, Suttner, Stephens, Skalak, Molumby, Knockaert, Kayal, Gross, Murphy, March, Izquierdo, Propper, Murray, Brown, Baldock.
Key match stats
These two sides haven’t met in a league fixture since the final day of the 2007-08 campaign in League One, with Swansea winning 1-0 at the Withdean Stadium.
Brighton have lost four of their last five meetings with the Swans in all competitions (D1) since a 3-2 win in League One in December 2006.
The Seagulls are winless in their last nine away league games at Swansea (D3 L6) since winning 1-0 in November 1992. However, they’ve never lost there in the top-flight (W1 D1).
Swansea have lost four of their last five Premier League games, with the only victory in that time coming against newly promoted Huddersfield.
The Swans have already lost to Newcastle at Liberty Stadium this season – they’ve never lost two Premier League home games against newly promoted sides in a single season before.
Brighton are looking to record back-to-back away victories in the top-flight for only the second time, and first since April 1981 when they won at Crystal Palace and Sunderland.
Since the start of last season, Swansea have conceded more home Premier League goals than any other side in the competition (43).
Swansea have attempted just 20 shots on target this season in their 10 Premier League games – only three sides have attempted fewer in their opening 10 PL games of a season since 2006-07: Sunderland (16 in 2012-13), Aston Villa (19 in 2014-15) and Burnley (19 in 2016-17).
Tammy Abraham has been directly involved in 71 per cent of Swansea’s seven league goals this season (4 goals, 1 assist) – the highest ratio in the division.
Pascal Gross is second on this list with 70 per cent (scored two, assisted five of Brighton’s 10 goals) – only six players have provided more assists in their first 10 Premier League appearances than the German midfielder (Lee Sharpe, David Ginola, Arjen Robben, Mesut Ozil, Angel Di Maria and Dusan Tadic each with six).