Carlos Carvalhal said that was his side’s best performance since becoming Swansea City manager, as his team thrashed West Ham United 4-1 at the Liberty Stadium.
It was a crucial game in the relegation battle, even more so following last weekend’s disappointing 4-1 defeat at Brighton, and the victory takes us up to 13th in the table – restoring a 3-point gap from ourselves and the drop zone.
Ki gave us an early lead after another excellent strike at the Premier League, following on from his winner against Burnley a few weeks ago. The South Korean found some space to pick out the bottom corner with a low, left-footed effort.
The Swans were on their A-game early on, and their relentless pressure and energy simply proved too much for the Hammers to handle, who never really got going until they scored a very late consolation goal thanks to substitute Antonio.
van der Hoorn nodded in easily from a corner to make it 2-0 at the break, as we played ten minutes injury time in the first half after a bad injury to West Ham’s Reid.
A third really killed off the game and West Ham’s slim hopes of getting something as Clucas sent in an in-swinging corner from the right, another that West Ham failed to deal with and this time it was Andy King – making his first Premier League appearance since his deadline day move from Leicester – who was well-placed to easily knock the ball in from close range.
Carvalhal, of course, used another analogy to describe the win, and he really couldn’t have put it any better!
‘We have had some important victories since I arrived but this was the best performance. We are near to what I want us to do in all aspects of the game.’We are progressing, it was an important victory. We lost last week and I said we would learn. It was my fault that we lost last week, we were too open.
‘We moved things around today, rested some players and I am very happy. Our level of intensity is very high and the players are in a very good way.
‘There are games where you must listen to the music of the opponent. We made West Ham dance to our music and it was rock and roll.’
Carvalhal also praised the players for their efforts, as their determination and pressure off the ball, particularly in the opening 15-20 minutes played a big part in getting the much-needed win:
‘I am delighted, I am proud of my players.
‘There is no secret to success. It is hard work, organisation, patience, dedication and correcting mistakes. We are better and better, we are really strong at the moment.
‘I put the players in the centre of everything. If you don’t have players who follow your ideas you can’t achieve anything.
‘We have trained hard at corners this week, movement, and we scored twice from them. Now we must create another strategy for the next game.’
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