Swans glide past pop gun Arsenal

Manchester City's John Stones, right and Arsenal's Mesut Ozil centre, the English Premier League soccer. Photo / AP

Swansea City climbed out of English football's Premier League relegation zone with a deserved 3-1 win over Arsenal yesterday.

Sam Clucas scored twice as Swansea jumped up three spots from the bottom of the table to 17th.

The win follows the Welsh side's defeat of Liverpool a week ago and was their third victory in five league games since Carlos Carvalhal took over as manager last month.

"To win against Arsenal after beating Liverpool, I'm more than proud of my players," Carvalhal said. "We are ready to do something different. We have a chance [of staying up]."

Nacho Monreal gave Arsenal a first-half lead only for Clucas to equalise a minute later. A poor clearance from Arsenal keeper Petr Cech led to Jordan Ayew putting the Swans in front in the second half and Clucas clinched the win with four minutes remaining.

Arsenal remain in sixth place, but are now eight points off the top four and Champions League qualification.

"I felt defensively we were very poor and made big mistakes," manager Arsene Wenger said. "I believe we were not good enough, I believe we were not disciplined enough."

Liverpool tightened their hold on a top-four place with a 3-0 win at Huddersfield. Emre Can, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah scored as the Reds rebounded from consecutive losses to Swansea in the league and West Brom in the FA Cup.

"It was exactly what we needed," manager Juergen Klopp said. "It was nearly perfect — not the performance, the result."

Klopp's team is now five clear of fifth-placed Tottenham.

Elsewhere, West Ham and Crystal Palace each moved up in the table after drawing 1-1.

West Ham climbed up to 10th, with Palace now 12th.

- AP