Paul Clement Emphasises Importance of Victory in Swansea's Next Match Against Stoke

Swansea manager Paul Clement has reiterated his desire to turn his side’s current form around, in a bid to secure Premier League survival for next season. The Swans currently sit in the bottom three, two points of nearest relegation battlers Hull, but in far worse form. 

Clement’s side have only managed to gain one point in their last six league matches, despite having looked solid contenders to stay up after Clement’s initial appointment, which gifted them something of a lift, which included a 3-2 victory over Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool. 

Back then, it looked as though Swansea could harness the quality of Fernando Llorente to find a consistent source of goals to keep them up, as well as the talents of new signings Tom Carroll, Luciano Narsingh, and Martin Olsson to bolster their side.

However, the Spanish target man was struck with injury shortly after, and Clement lamented this bad fortune to ?The Telegraph, after Swansea’s 1-0 defeat to Watford on Saturday, saying: “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.

Now, with only five matches remaining for the Swans, Clement is refusing to shy away from his side’s bad form, and is looking to motivate his players, ahead of next Saturday’s huge match against Stoke. ?

He added: “It’s a massive, massive game against Stoke [next Saturday]

“A must-win game. There’s no magic answer to getting the right result. It’s about knuckling down, doing our jobs and, maybe, that little bit of luck.”

When talking about the sides closest to them in the relegation battle, Clement firmly targeted Hull as the opposition he was looking to overtake, but was also aware of Middlesbrough, and a possible survival bid from them. 

He continue“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.”