There was a funereal feel about this fixture as Stoke, who were already relegated, condemned Swansea to spending next season in the Championship alongside them. That never looked like materialising as Swansea’s seven-year stay in the Premier League ended in defeat and amid no little anger in the stands. Either way, Carvalhal had clearly done his homework before coming into the press conference room afterwards. Swansea, 13th at the start of March, failed to win any of their last nine league games – something that Carvalhal attributed, rather dubiously, to the team’s element of “surprise disappearing”. “Anyone that knows me knows I’m fair but my standards are high, and I wouldn’t have accepted that anywhere,” Lambert said.

Source: The Guardian May 13, 2018 16:21 UTC