Sebastian Larsson says Blues main target is still Premiership survival

Dec 7 2009 by Colin Tattum, Birmingham Mail

Sebastian Larsson

TWO-GOAL hero Sebastian Larsson said there was no way Blues would ‘get ahead of themselves’.

Larsson, whose free-kick double helped transform Blues in the second half during the victory at Wigan Athletic, said Premier League survival, and not dreams of Europe, was the side’s target.

Blues went up to eighth in the table after the 3-2 success, which extended their unbeaten run to six matches.

But their highest position since April 2004 lasted 24 hours after Fulham defeated Sunderland yesterday.

“The belief is there that we can look up, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves thinking we’re world champs already,” said the Sweden winger.

“We can’t get too carried away talking about Europe and all those kind of things.

“We have got to try to make sure we stay a Premiership team next season and we’ve still got a long way to go.

“We keep reminding ourselves and at half-time at Wigan we reminded ourselves that maybe we weren’t as good as we believe at the moment.”

The way the opening 45 minutes had gone at Wigan, it appeared as if Blues were heading for defeat.

Larsson said: “The first-half, we started the game decently. But after that Wigan are quite physical and they were good at that.

“We stopped playing and played like they played, the ball was like a hot potato for all of us.

“We let each other know that we can’t feel we’re world beaters all of a sudden just because we’ve won a couple of games. We needed to go back to what we were good at, being strong and working hard for each other, and it paid off.”

Blues are now making it a habit of beating teams they have to.

In 2007-08 when they were last relegated, they failed to meet the challenge in key matches against other strugglers.

Larsson remembered Blues last trip to Wigan in the April of that campaign when they lost 2-0, shortly after stumbling 2-1 at Reading.

The match that killed them off, Fulham (0-2), was to come on the horizon.

“We said before the Wigan game that in case we did go a goal down, we had to stay together and believe that we could turn it around.

“We do have that belief at the moment,’’ he said.

‘‘Two years ago, we conceded at Wigan and couldn’t get back from it. We had problems in those kind of games.

“We keep reminding ourselves that if we stay in the game, we can get something out of it.”

Larsson welcomed the planned significant spending during the January transfer window.

And he agreed with Alex McLeish’s assessment that Blues had to sign not only quality, but the right types who would fit seamlessly into the current dressing room environment.

“Hopefully it’s easier to attract players when you are a little bit further up the table rather than fighting relegation.

“It would be nice if we could add a few quality players in January. All of us here want to take this team as far as possible and let’s see what can happen.

“The atmosphere in the squad has been terrific. It’s probably been the best since I’ve been here, although it has always been good. It’s a good laugh every day and we enjoy it.”

* Footnote: Blues were as high as seventh in the 2004-05 Premier League – but after only three games.