James Collins issues West Ham relegation warning ahead of 'biggest game in years' against Swansea

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Ken Dyer6 April 2017

West Ham defender James Collins admits the club are in danger of being sucked into the Premier League relegation fight after losing their fifth match in a row last night.

The Hammers were beaten 3-0 at Arsenal and are now just five points ahead of third-from-bottom Swansea, who were ahead until the 88th minute against Tottenham last night before losing 3-1.

And experienced defender Collins summed up the importance of Saturday’s home match against the Welsh side when he said: “It’s a massive game, the biggest at West Ham for many a year because, if we don’t win it, we’re sucked right into a relegation fight.”

Wales international Collins has come into the team following an injury to Winston Reid and was one of the few positives for West Ham at The Emirates last night.

“We did alright in the first half, we knew we had to defend well and we did that,” he added. "At the moment, though, it seems there only needs to be one thing that goes against us — it doesn’t even have to be a goal — and we seem to crumble, which is disappointing.

“We can’t go a goal behind and think the game is over. At the moment, it looks as though, if we don’t keep a clean sheet, we’re not going to get any points.

“We need to re-group quickly, have a couple of good days’ training and then make sure we get those three points on Saturday.

“Confidence is low at the moment and you can see that when we go a goal down, but we know we can play well, as we did when we beat them [Swansea] 4-1 earlier in the season.

“At the moment the heads are going down, which is not good, so we need to have a little chat before Saturday’s game.

“As for myself, I think I’ve done okay since I came in, but we’ve still lost both games. Everyone needs to look at themselves and their performances. The next two games, against Swansea and then Sunderland, are huge.”

West Ham manager Slaven Bilic said of the Swansea clash: “We need that win. Okay, we are at home and they have improved, but they are five points behind us and there is a reason for that.

“We are in the fight now. It’s not being negative, it is being realistic.”

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