'We must lift ourselves for Palace'

Leroy Fer has urged Swansea City to lift their heads up as they look to climb the Premier League table.

The Swans are sure to be in the Premier League’s bottom three at Christmas after Monday’s 3-1 defeat at Everton.

Paul Clement’s men have 12 points on the board after 18 games, a tally which leaves them four points adrift of safety ahead of this weekend’s key clash with Crystal Palace at the Liberty Stadium.

The Swans had hoped to be in a stronger position by now, but have endured a difficult campaign to date.

Nevertheless, Clement’s side head into the Palace clash knowing a victory would take them to 15 points at the halfway point in 2017-18, which would be three more than they had at the same stage last term.

And despite the disappointment of Everton, Fer insists they must remain upbeat.

“We have to lift ourselves now and look ahead to Crystal Palace,” the midfielder said.

“It’s a massive game for us on Saturday.

“That is the same with every game right now because we are bottom of the league, but we are at home and we know we need to get some points.

“We have to do the same as last season now. We have to fight back in the second half of the season to make sure we survive.

“We wanted to be in a better position but we haven’t been able to get there. What we have to do now is change things around.”

Fer scored his first Premier League goal in 13 months to put the Swans in front at Everton on Monday.

After an impressive performance throughout the majority of the first half, the Swans looked capable of getting something at Goodison Park.

But Everton scored the first of three avoidable goals in stoppage time before the break and the home side then got the upper hand in the second period.

“We should have played better in the second half,” Fer conceded.

“We did well in the first half, we created some chances, especially down the right with Luciano Narsingh.

“But we conceded some bad goals and they cost us. We can only look ahead now.”