After narrowly avoiding the drop last season Swansea suffered painful relegation this time around despite changing managers halfway through the campaign and improving their results late in the season under Carvalhal.
Slow start to the season, 5 points collected from the opening 7 games, put immediate pressure on Swansea and coach Clement, who saw his main summer signings turning into failures very quickly. Bony suffered with injuries all campaign and hardly impacted the forward actions, Sanchez was the same in midfield, with Clucas and Abraham looking unprepared for regular top flight action.
Things got even worse for the Swans in the autumn and after collecting just 4 points between rounds 9 and 18 Clement was sacked, with Swansea sitting bottom of the table come Christmas time.
Carvalhal was appointed for the away clash vs. Watford on New Year’s Eve, which the Swans won 2:1 and at least in his first two months at the helm the Portuguese gaffer sparked revival. Four wins and four draws between rounds 23 and 30, plus the best ever FA Cup run for Swansea, the quarterfinals were reached in this competition, helped the team to even exit the bottom three come March, but this was when Carvalhal’s honeymoon ended.
Being very poor in their forward actions all campaign, Swansea scored just 3 goals in the last 9 rounds and had the fewest shots attempted on their travels from all Premier League teams, they fell in trouble again after collecting just two points from seven games right at the end of the campaign. Still the chances of survival looked good with the last two clashes being both at home and against the level on points Southampton and the already relegated team of Stoke. However, the Swans lost both these games and this was what saw them failing to avoid the drop, a threat that was hanging over them for three consecutive years and eventually saw them fail.
