Curtis talks down resurgent Swansea´s latest triumph

Swansea City must keep fighting hard to secure Premier League survival following a crucial 1-0 win against rivals Norwich City, according to first-team coach Alan Curtis.

Head coach Francesco Guidolin missed the 2-1 triumph at Arsenal on Wednesday after being hospitalised with a chest infection.

He was absent again on Saturday, Curtis taking charge for the match at Liberty Stadium, where Gylfi Sigurdsson’s second-half goal sealed all three points.

Swansea are now nine points clear of the drop zone, but Curtis insisted they are not safe yet.

“We know that we’ve still got an awful lot of work to do and we stressed that after the game,” he said. 

“Enjoy the moment but we’ll be back in on Tuesday to focus on getting another massive three points at Bournemouth.

“It’s a big statement. It gives ourselves some breathing space between ourselves and the bottom clubs, but we’re still only on 33 points and that is not going to get you safety.

“We knew our next three fixtures would probably define and our season – and that’s just one out of the way.”

Swansea travel to face AFC Bournemouth next weekend before hosting bottom side Aston Villa and will hope to improve the quality of their performance while continuing to pick up important points.

“Overall, I thought it was a poor game and that we were poor first half. I think both teams got caught up in just how much the game meant to them,” Curtis said.

“We made one change at half-time and controlled the game for long periods in the second half. 

“The goal came from one of the best moves of the game and Gylfi [Sigurdsson] has finished it superbly well, but then we were hanging on a little bit at the end.

“We were a little bit tense at the end and invited them on to us and possibly they could have equalised at the end but I thought we did deserve it over the second 45 minutes.

“It will give Francesco [Guidolin] a huge boost. We received a message at the end of the game to say how delighted he was.

“He’s due out of hospital on Monday maybe. Hopefully he will be with us next weekend.”