Carlos Carvalhal to uncork Jose Mourinho wine if Swansea stay up

Carlos Carvalhal has praised his players for their performances since his arrival at the club

Carlos Carvalhal plans on uncorking a special bottle of wine given to him by Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho if Swansea stay in the Premier League.

Carvalhal has done an impressive job since taking over at Swansea in December, dragging them off the foot of the table and out of the relegation zone.

However, with five games left to play, they are still not out of danger, with only a four-point advantage over 17th-placed Southampton.

Ahead of a trip to champions Manchester City on Sunday, live on Sky Sports, Swansea boss Carvalhal has revealed how he will mark the occasion if he does keep the club in the Premier League.

"I have a bottle that Mourinho gave me when we played them, a Portuguese wine, that I am ready to open with my staff if we stay in the Premier League like we expect and are optimistic about," he said.

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"It's a special bottle. I keep it because the wine is fantastic. He gave it to us and we will keep it until that special day, if we achieve it. I am looking forward to opening the wine. I am very excited for that, but first it's about focus and winning points."

Swansea will be looking to rain on City's parade on Sunday as Pep Guardiola's side play their first game since being crowned champions.

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"This is not our party at the weekend but we will try to do our best and get points, understanding that it will be one of the most difficult games of the season for all teams because they are champions."

Following their trip to City, Swansea face Chelsea and Bournemouth before finishing with home games against relegation rivals Southampton and Stoke.

Having only lost three league matches in his four months in charge, Carvalhal is optimistic that Swansea will avoid the drop.

"When we arrived we had 0.01 per cent chance of staying up, nobody believed we would, everybody thought the team would be relegated soon," he said.

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"Now we are optimistic, I don't know the percentage but we have changed things completely and we have things in our hand to stay in the Premier League.

"Everything is possible, but reality shows to us we have lost three games. We are achieving points in most of our games. I don't know why we wouldn't continue to do that until the end of the season. I believe we will and if we do we will stay up.

"If we achieve it then it will be a fantastic achievement because it was really hard to change things and nobody believed in that moment."

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Carvalhal only signed a short-term deal until the end of the season when he succeeded Paul Clement in December.

While he is yet to commit his future to the club, he said: "Since I have been 38 or 40 I don't have any material ambitions, I don't want to buy anything, I have much more than I expected in my life. I come from a middle-lower class background and I never dreamed that I would achieve the things that I have achieved.

"When you achieve that you don't think too much about money. You think about being comfortable and being in a place where people like you, trying to play good football, do positive things and give positive energy to people around you.

"You can only do this if you are in an environment where people like you, if the players, fans, chairman like you then you can do that. If you go to a place where the people have doubts about you then you are not happy. I want to be happy. It does not make me less ambitious, but part of my ambition is to be comfortable at a club."

Watch Manchester City v Swansea from 4pm on Sky Sports on Sunday

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