It’s important to remember that these times are to be enjoyed
There was no parading and fist pumping in front of the Burnley fans this time for Swansea manager Paul Clement, just a head down walk across to the tunnel after his side had been comprehensively beaten by the Clarets.
He admitted it too. “We are not playing well, that’s clear,” he said. “And when we don’t play well, it’s hard to pick up results. The big teams can get results even when they don’t play well, but it’s very difficult for sides like us to do that.
“These players are capable of performing better than they are at the moment, and that’s what we want to happen as quickly as possible. Of course I am concerned, I would be stupid if I wasn’t.
“All these things we have to work on, but I have got no doubts about my ability and the ability of these players. Together, we have to work through difficult times. Better times are in the future if you have belief and you are positive.”
He changed things today, playing former Burnley loanee Nathan Dyer and Renato Sanches wide with Jordan Ayew pushed up front with Tammy Abraham. He said: “”The thinking was that while we have been doing okay defensively, our problems have been offensive. We have scored seven goals in twelve games. That’s not enough.
“We wanted to try to keep our defensive stability but get more offensive players into the team to try to create, but unfortunately it didn’t work either way today.”
There was nothing downbeat from Sean Dyche who saw his side win a third successive Premier League game and take our points total to 22 from the first twelve games.
“I was really pleased, particularly with the first half,” he said. “We took the game on and scored a fantastic goal, without them touching it, from our keeper, to cap off a fantastic couple of weeks for Corky.
“The second was a great press and what a strike from Barnesy. That put us in control of the game and then, in the second half it became about how we could control the game, which we did with our shape and doing the basic principles well.
“Maybe keeping the ball is something we have to do better, but with the counters we had in the second half it was a surprise to probably everyone in the stadium that we didn’t end up a little bit more comfortable.
“It’s all good signs though and they are performances that, as a manager, players and staff, you are very proud of.”
Burnley were without Chris Wood this afternoon, as expected, but Dyche explained: “It was a really simple situation. Chris had three flights to get back and landed and went straight from the airport to training. I don’t think that’s ideal preparation for a Premier League game and it was nothing to do with his hamstring or anything else.
“It was my decision to say ‘look, big man, you’ve had a knock anyway and that amount of travelling it’s almost inhuman with the body clock and amount of travel, to play, but he’ll be fine and he’ll be back in training next week.”
That’s left us in seventh place with a seven point advantage over Brighton in eighth. They and Watford, both on 15 points, play tomorrow.
Dyche said of that: “The league table is to be enjoyed and I’ll probably do that for an hour before I start thinking about the next one. But it’s important to remember that these times are to be enjoyed by everyone, because it’s not easy to do what we are doing at the moment.
“We know it’s a big challenge going forwards and 40 points is the marker, so we look to the next challenge that comes our way and that’s Arsenal.”
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