Swansea City manager Bob Bradley believes his side can’t get ahead of themselves after their 3-0 win over Sunderland.
They moved out of the relegation zone with their second win in three games, at least until 18th place West Ham play Liverpool on Sunday.
Swansea are up to 17th, ahead of West Ham, Sunderland and Hull City. They are on 12 points, level with the Hammers on goal difference.
What did Bradley say?
Bradley said: “There is still lots of work to do and we cannot get ahead of ourselves. I have had discussions with a lot of my players this week, and the word many of them used was pride.”
The American commented, “I said back to them: ‘What does pride look like on the field? Pride has to turn intensity and clean sheets, you can’t just talk about pride’.”
The manager also said that his side has to turn pride into something more, and that while the table looks better than last week they aren’t out of trouble yet.
Can Swansea build on this result?
Today’s game was the best performance of Swansea’s season, but inconsistency has been a problem in 2016.
Bradley made just five changes to his starting lineup against Sunderland, less than he has usually been changing, and the side looked a lot better even on paper.
Bringing Leon Britton back into the team was a good idea, the Swansea stalwart ran the show in midfield alongside Jay Fulton.
Defender Alfie Mawson could well be the best centre-back at the club, despite playing just four games of top-flight football.
Against Sunderland, Mawson made five clearances, three interceptions, blocked two shots while making 35 passes.
Swansea have quite a favourable run of fixtures coming up, and with more good performances like this they could start to climb up the table.
Swansea’s next Premier League fixture is away to high-flying West Brom on Wednesday, 14th December.