West Ham United vs Swansea - Swansea can drag West Ham into relegation battle
Posted Saturday, April 08, 2017 by PA
Martin Olsson believes West Ham's feeble form presents an opportunity for Swansea to boost their Premier League survival prospects.
Swansea dropped into the relegation zone after Wednesday's 3-1 home defeat to Tottenham and they have now picked up only one point from four games.
West Ham's form has been even poorer with five successive defeats sparking relegation fears and raising doubts over the future of manager Slaven Bilic.
The Hammers, five points better off than Swansea, have already lost seven times in the league at their London Stadium home this season - and another defeat would really leave them in relegation bother.
"This has not been a good run, but West Ham are on one too so we have a big chance to go and get something," said Swansea full-back Olsson.
"(London Stadium) will make a difference, because they are not playing as they can at home.
"Upton Park was a really tough place to go and they have not collected points as they did last season.
"When you are in a scrap like this you have to work hard.
"It will not necessarily be about pretty football, it will be about digging deep."
Olsson admitted that the Spurs defeat - when they conceded three times from the 88th-minute onwards - was tough to take after Swansea had put so much into the game against title challengers.
But he feels Swansea have shown enough spirit since Paul Clement was appointed head coach in January to pick up enough points in their final seven games of the season.
"We are gutted with the Spurs result, but there are still games left and we can't be too down," Olsson said.
"It is worrying that we have lost some momentum, we had it on our side from January.
"Now we have had a tough time. There are games left, we are not out of it, and with a few more wins we can still be safe.
"We don't want to be where we are.
"We would much rather be looking further up the table than be down at the bottom.
"But this is the reality and, if we want to get away from it, we are going to have to go and get results.
"We must stick together and show guts and determination as a team."
West Ham are hopeful Andy Carroll and Michail Antonio will be fit.
Striker Carroll went off during the 3-0 defeat at Arsenal with a groin problem and winger Antonio had to be replaced at half-time due to illness.
Defenders Aaron Cresswell, Winston Reid and Angelo Ogbonna and midfielder Pedro Obiang are out injured.
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