Clement committed to his biggest prize
down, doing our jobs and, maybe, that little bit of luck.”
The manager has his sights firmly set on Hull, one place and two points above Swansea, but concedes that other sides could yet be drawn into the mire.
“My view is that it’s between us and Hull but Middlesbrough have got an important game on Monday night. They play against Arsenal, they’ve got a game in hand, so they’re not dead and buried. Crystal Palace have gathered momentum and got big results against Chelsea and Arsenal but they’ve still got a really difficult run.”
When Swansea won at Anfield in January, they looked to have the quality to climb to the comforts of mid-table and, in Fernando Llorente (right), had a proven scorer. But the Spaniard has not scored since March 4 and nobody else is filling the void – a problem that Clement, the former Chelsea, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich coach, must address in the next five matches. “He had good momentum and then he broke down with an injury that kept him out a good couple of weeks. Fernando’s a player that always needs good quality supply into the box, good delivery and they weren’t good enough today,” said Clement after watching his team fail to create chances against Watford, for whom Étienne Capoue capitalised on a defensive blunder to score. Clement added: “When you’re in charge, that responsibility falls on to you. “I came in here, the team were bottom, 12 points. I believe it’s only been done three times before in Premier League history when a team’s bottom at Christmas and managed to stay up. We’ve got to look to do the same.” If Hull City’s away form had been even half as good as that at the KCOM Stadium this season they would be fighting it out with Stoke City for a top-10 finish rather than looking anxiously at the results of the three teams below them.
Hull have not won away from home – indeed, they have picked up only two points – since beating Swansea at the Liberty Stadium in August, when seven points from their opening four matches suggested a rather different season.
Hardly surprising, then, that their players are wondering if they can win enough points at home in their last five matches that failing to