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Carlos Carvalhal insists Swansea City have got their heads out of water and are swimming to safety after his incredible survival mission continues.

Carvalhal arrived at the Liberty with the Swans five points adrift at the bottom of the table, picking up just 13 points from 20 Premier League games.

It had seen many predict Swansea were already doomed and destined to sink to the Championship – only for the former Sheffield Wednesday boss to instigate an astonishing turnaround that continued with a 1-0 win over Burnley.

Ki Sung-Yueng’s goal nine minutes from time made it 14 points from just seven league games in charge under the Portuguese, sending them to 15th in the table and allowing fans to dream of another ‘Great Escape’.

(Image: PA)

And Carvalhal – continuing his reputation for being a master of the metaphor – insisted that Swansea have managed to get their head up to see their way out of difficult waters.

He said: “When we arrived we were deep in the ocean, where it is very dark and just stones, no fishes. We couldn’t see anything.

“After we started winning, after the big games against Arsenal and Liverpool, we had only just got our noses out of the water to breathe. Last week was the first time we smelled the fresh air.

(Image: Huw Evans Picture Agency)

“In this moment we are maybe starting to swim a little. We can now look to the coast, we know the direction to swim to achieve what we want. It is important, but to start to the swim and to get to the coast is very difficult and there is a long way to go before we get there.”

Carvalhal has certainly given his side a great chance of reaching the sands of safety, rewarded for his ambition to try and break Burnley down.

In a tight contest, Carvalhal threw on record £18m signing Andre Ayew for his second debut, as well as loan striker Tammy Abraham, the attacking options paying dividend when the pressure told with Ki’s strike.

(Image: PA)

And Carvalhal added: “I’m very proud of my players again. We played against a difficult team to beat, the third best defence in the competition, but we felt in the second half these players wanted to win and we tried to help them by putting more players to go for the win. We took the risks, but it was controlled because we have practised it in training.

A favourite coach of mine uses an expression about putting all the meat on the barbecue which is what we did to try and win. We put all the meat on the barbecue and in the end we deserved to win.”