Swansea City manager Paul Clement has rejected suggestions that his side are in a relegation battle despite sitting in the bottom three after seven games of the season.
The Swans were in danger of dropping down to the Championship for much of last season, but Clement's introduction saw an upturn in form and Swansea took 13 points from their final five matches to ultimately finish 15th in the table.
However, just one win from seven so far this season has quickly seen Swansea drop back into the relegation zone, although Clement believes that it is too early to suggest that they will struggle again this time around.
"It is much too early to say we are in a relegation battle. When I first arrived at the club [in January] they were writing us off, and when there were five games to go and it (relegation) was between us and Hull the pundits were saying 'Swansea are down'. But it made no difference to us, we knew what we had to do then and we know what we have to do now," he told reporters.
"A couple of good results - a win and a draw or back-to-back wins - and everything looks totally different. I think this is a team that will get better and better as the season goes on.
"We had more changes than I envisaged in the summer and we have players who have not played so regularly in the last year like Renato [Sanches] and Wilfried [Bony]. When you add in four or five others it will take time to integrate them. I expect them to show an improvement and I'm confident we will be better in the second half of the season than the first."
Swansea host newly-promoted Huddersfield Town at the Liberty Stadium on Saturday.
Barney Corkhill
