Sam Allardyce has stirred up Tuesday night’s clash between Swansea City and his Crystal Palace side by claiming it should be a comfortable victory for the London club.
The Swans go to Selhurst Park having conceded 13 goals in four straight Premier League defeats in which they have scored just twice.
That kind of weakness has convinced Allardyce that Palace’s main problem will be their own nervousness as they themselves have lost three of their last four games and won only once in 13.
The former England manager said: ““Swansea is a massive game for the nerves of our players.
“They have to control their nerves on that day, because everybody expects us to win on the basis that Swansea are struggling. We are struggling, but they are struggling really badly.
“When they have let goals in, they’ve conceded three or four. People are expecting us to go out on Tuesday night and thrash Swansea which won’t be the case.
“We would like to beat them by more than one or two goals. But we really have to hold our nerve on Tuesday and produce our best performance.”
In Swansea’s last four games they have conceded three to Bournemouth, four to West Ham, three to Middlesbrough and three to West Brom.
That kind of form led to the sacking of Bob Bradley before the Bournemouth defeat and the imminent appointment of Paul Clement as their third manager of a disintegrating season.
Clement is expected to be confirmed as the Swans’ new boss before the Palace game, although he will have a watching brief from the stands and caretaker Alan Curtis will continue in charge.
Allardyce tried to bring Clement into his coaching team during his one-match tenure of the England team, but the former Derby County manager stayed at Bayern Munich.
Allardyce backed his coaching skills to help Swansea, although he offered few words of advice ahead of game that could reduce the gap between the clubs to just one point if the Swans won away from home for the first time since the opening day of the season.
“It will be down to his coaching of the players, his organisation of the players and the experience he’s gained with [Carlo] Ancelotti,” added Allardyce.
“I have gone into that position many times before so I’m not going to shell out any advice now. I don’t want to give him anything he might be able to use. We’ll talk after the game by which time we’ve won hopefully, fingers crossed.”
Swansea’s Wayne Routledge will be checked after he missed the defeat to Bournemouth due to a mouth abscess.
Striker Fernando Llorente is also a doubt after picking up a knock, but Jefferson Montero is definitely absent with a hamstring injury.