Alan Curtis: Imperative for Swansea to avoid Arsenal defeat

Swansea coach Alan Curtis began his association with the club as a player in 1972

Swansea coach Alan Curtis says his side can not afford to lose at title-chasing Arsenal.

Back-to-back defeats at home to Southampton and at Tottenham have left Swansea just three points outside the Premier League drop-zone.

"We have to try and get something from the Arsenal game," Curtis explained.

"We are under pressure, it is imperative we don't lose a third game in a row. But we do have a good record at Arsenal."

Curtis is hopeful Swansea will be encouraged by the fact they have only lost once in the Premier League at the Emirates Stadium.

"We will of course be the underdogs again, but we can draw confidence from the fact we have played well there and got results there.

"We have a couple of victories and a draw."

Curtis is hoping that Swansea might be able to exploit any uncertainty in Arsenal, who damaged their title prospects at the weekend by losing at Manchester United.

"We go to the Arsenal game looking to pick something up at least," he said.

Swansea's players need to produce a better performance than they did at Tottenham, according to Alan Curtis

"If there is any element of uncertainty from Arsenal, we hope we can exploit that.

"We have watched the game at Manchester United and there are a couple of things we can look to exploit.

"Certainly they will want to bounce back quickly and it is up to us to do our best to stop them."

Match Spurs effort in defence

Curtis will be happy if Swansea match their defensive effort in the 2-1 defeat at Spurs, but wants his side to use the ball better than they did at White Hart Lane.

"We need to play our game, but we need to create more opportunities through our general play," Curtis explained.

"The Spurs game, it was not our limitations as Spurs were just so good coming forward.

"In the second half, they were the best team we have played all season.

"It was very difficult and Arsenal are similar in the way they play, great to watch and hard to play against.

"We need to do better with our possession, not controlling the game, but controlling the ball, that's what our game is."