Bob Bradley says Swansea can become a 'really good team' after defeat at Arsenal

Swansea manager Bob Bradley is convinced the Swans can turn the things around in the Premier League, despite suffering a disappointing 3-2 defeat at Arsenal in his first game in charge.

The American boss rued the defensive mistakes made by his players in Theo Walcott's early two goals, but still took plenty of positives from the loss.

Walcott put the Gunners in charge with two goals before the 33th minute of the game after capitalising on defensive errors from Jordi Amat and Jack Cork.

Gylfi Sigurdsson gave Bradley's side some hope before the break, but Mesut Ozil restored a two-goal lead for Arsenal earlier in the second half.

Swansea responded again to set up a dramatic final after club record signing Borja Baston reduced the gap, only before Granit Xhaka was sent off with 20 minutes left to play, forcing Petr Čech to make a string of late saves to secure the three points for Arsenal.

"I didn't like our start," Bradley admitted in the press conference after the defeat to Arsenal. "We were slow to step out and we gave them too much space, and Arsenal are a team who will play through the lines if you let them.

"That coincided with two poor goals from our point of view, but somewhere in there we also started to play with more confidence and our tempo picked up. Going in at half-time having made it 2-1, we were pretty positive. We said we'd shown them a bit too much respect but we've also shown we can play in the match. They made it 3-1 with a great goal from their point of view but one where we slow to push out, so I didn't like that. But we kept going. We made it 3-2 and we might have got something out of the game."

The defeat to Arsenal leaves Swansea second bottom of the Premier League, with only four points from eight games.

Bradley left the Emirates Stadium "disappointed" with the situation, but said that the game also gave him enough reasons to believe that his side can "become a really good team".

"At the end, I am disappointed because we lost," Bradley said. "But I think the feeling amongst the players is that we have had a good week's training and if we can take the starting points we saw today and keep going 30 more times, there's a chance to become a really good team.

"Obviously if you do that, you are going to take points. I don't expect our fans to be satisfied after that game, but maybe, like me, they saw a few things today they liked.

"That doesn't mean we get ahead of ourselves, because in any league you have to work hard to get better. But I like this group of players. It's been really nice to come in and see their response.

"There's not one of us who will walk out happy today – no chance – but I think we can still look at some of what happened on the field and say that's what we need to be about. That's the kind of football we can play and that's the kind of mentality we can build on."