Didn’t stop Swans for relegation fight

“At the moment we are in 16th position, so if the table stopped tomorrow we would have conceded that amount of goals and stayed up.

“There are those stats about sides who are bottom at New Year, but again if we stopped the table now we would be safe. We have 10 games to go.

“I have spoken to my brother over the years about his experience and their strategy was to move on to the next game, to just think about the next 90 minutes. What can we get out of it?

“It is very similar to what we are doing here. They (West Brom) did it on the last day and I think they did it on the lowest points tally in the Premier League.”

One hallmark of Clement’s short reign has been Swansea’s ability to bounce back from defeat with a three-point haul.

Defeats to Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea were followed by victories over Liverpool, Leicester and Burnley, ensuring Clement has yet to suffer back-to-back league defeats.

Repeating the feat would be ideal given the head coach, his staff and players will have the elongated break provided by the international break to dwell if they do not get the outcome they seek.

“I have always found that the final game before a break is important,” he said.

“You know you have two weeks until the next game and you can find it hanging over you if you do not get the performance and result you want. We know we can do better than we did at Hull, we want to put in a good performance.

“I’m aware that we have followed defeats with wins, and I’ve made that point that we’ve always responded very well to adversity.

“It’s slightly different now because we’re playing away again so it’s more difficult. But there’s no reason why we can’t win at Bournemouth. We will give them a tough game.”

Those final words are a statement that has been true of most of Swansea’s performances under Clement and, while he may not be fully aware of the difference he has made to the club having not watched that last game against Bournemouth, supporters and, most importantly, their opponents will only be too aware come kick-off this evening.