This will probably come as a big surprise to you, but there’s generally a co-relation between wage bill and league position. Swansea had the 14th highest wage bill in the EPL in 2016/17. Swansea currently lie 14th in the table. The top three teams in the table after 6 games, Manchester City, Man U and Chelsea also had the top wage bills in the EPL in 2016/17 in the same order they currently sit in the table. Spurs are currently 4th in the table, continuing to punch above their weight as they had the 6th highest wage bill in 2016/17. Liverpool (giving them the benefit of the doubt to win at Leicester) will be 5th and had the 5th highest wage bill in 2016/17.
A swing of nearly £37 million for Swansea in the 31 August 2017 transfer window on a negative net spend of just under £10 million in the 31 August 2016 transfer window. They’ve lost two of their most influential players Llorente and Sigurdsson. When you look at the wage bill and the current net spend figures, Paul Clement has Swansea punching about their weight (maybe slightly above it) with the new American owners operating such a financially prudent approach in the transfer market.