CARLOS CONFIDENT SWANS WILL SURVIVE

c ARLOS Carvalhal has told his Swansea City players they will remain in the Premier League provided they continue to perform to the same level as they showed in their 1-1 draw with Everton at the Liberty Stadium yesterday.

The Swans turned in one of their best performances of the season, but could not come away with a threepoint haul which would have sent them seven points clear of the bottom three following Southampton’s defeat to Chelsea.

At one stage it had looked as though they might get no reward at all as they trailed to a Kyle Naughton own goal just before the interval, having failed to take a succession of chances.

However, Jordan Ayew smashed home his 11th goal of the season with 19 minutes to play to ensure the Swans did edge five points clear of the drop zone with five games of the season remaining.

Wins for Crystal Palace and Huddersfield saw the Swans drop to 17th, but they pulled further away from the bottom three, at least until Stoke play West Ham tomorrow night.

And, while Carvalhal felt his side had not got their just rewards, he is sure safety will be secured if they can consistently perform in such a manner.

“It is obvious we deserved more, we tried to win and we put out a team to try and win,” said Carvalhal.

“We achieved three or four clear situations and credit to the goalkeeper of Everton who made some fantastic saves.

“We conceded a strange goal, but like five or six occasions where we have been losing we came back strong and in the second half we were in the opposing half of the pitch.

“We got back to 1-1 but we could not achieve the winner we deserved against a competitive and organised team.

“I am very pleased with the players and the fans because I believe we did a great game.

“Usually with the situations we had we are singing ‘Goal’, but we achieved one point. We deserved three, but we achieved one and in this competition you never know if this point will be crucial at the end.

“We are on a path, we are not an easy team to play against, we have more fight and we will try and keep playing like this afternoon to achieve the points to stay in the Premier League.

“We are not depending on others to stay in the Premier League.

“I know we have to fix it ourselves. If we win games we will stay up. We did a great game.

“We played with big heart, big commitment and deserved more. We are optimistic, we have five games left, three at home and two away, and if we play like that in all of them we will have a big chance to stay up.”

Meanwhile, Cardiff City left it late before goals from Kenneth Zohore and Junior Hoilett secured a 2-0 win at Norwich.

After back-to-back Championship defeats it was a huge result for Neil Warnock’s men who are now back up to second place in the table as Fulham could only manage a draw at home to Brentford – a result that also ensured leaders Wolves, who play Birmingham today, are now assured of promotion to the Premier League.

And Warnock’s Bluebirds are back in pole position to join them in the second automatic spot.

“I’m as delighted [with the win] as I was deflated in the last two games, because you don’t always get what you deserve. How we didn’t get four points out of those two games I’ll never know,” said Warnock.

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