Monday's media watch

22nd December

Today's press coverage looks back on the Swans' 1-0 win at Hull City last weekend.
With scorer Ki Sung-Yueng and Wilfried Bony set to be involved in the Asian Cup and African Cup of Nations, manager Garry Monk assesses their absences in the Swans squad.
And skipper Ashley Williams has backed Bafe Gomis to take his big opportunity when Bony is on international duty after the Frenchman was handed a starting role in the win at Hull.


Not much champagne football, but Garry Monk should enjoy a glass of bubbly this Christmas
South Wales Evening Post
Garry Monk should treat himself to a glass of bubbly when he gets home from training on Christmas Day.
The toast? To more of the same from his Swansea City side in the second half of the season.
Okay, so there was not much champagne football on show at Hull City this weekend.
But though they were short of their fluent best, Swansea were able to produce a gritty, battling effort which was enough to earn them three points.
The total for the season now stands at 25, more than Swansea have ever had before at this stage of a Premier League campaign - including the 2012-13 season, which is widely regarded as the club's best ever.
Monk will not be celebrating too hard just yet. Already there is talk within the Swansea dressing room about the need to push on this season, to get to 40 points as early as possible and then kick on from there.
In the past, Swansea have been guilty of easing off a little having reached the traditional safety line.
This season there is a determination not only to get to the landmark, but to leave it behind.
Swansea's lofty ambitions are understandable, for the gloomy predictions that followed them around in pre-season now seem a distant memory.
Monk and his players have proved their many doubters wrong with their efforts in the first 17 games of this top-flight campaign, and the challenge now is to maintain the considerable momentum they have built up.
"To have 25 points at Christmas is good," Monk acknowledged.
"It's ahead of where we've ever been before in this league so that's important.
"We're in the top half of the league and we have been there all season.
"It's now about trying to maintain that, and cementing ourselves as best as possible in that position in the games we've got coming up.
"We have been working very well and the players have been taking on the information I have given them. We have brought in a different way of doing things with and without the ball, and we're making progress.
"I believe the squad will only get stronger, they will improve because of everything we are doing and take it into the second half of the season."

Christmas double has a crucial look for the Tigers
Yorkshire Post
As with 'Cyber Monday' and 'Black Friday', America's influence on everyday life on this side of the Atlantic has seen the final Saturday before Christmas given its own tag-name in recent years.
However, while panicked shoppers did, as forecast, head towards the shop tills in their millions, Hull fans were never going to forsake the match for the shops.
With Swansea having failed to score on any of their three previous visits to the KC Stadium, the hope among the locals ahead of kick-off was that an early Christmas present would be coming their way courtesy of three much-needed points.
Instead, what they got was a turkey of a performance as Hull slipped further into the mire on another frustrating afternoon.
Only Andrew Robertson, thanks to some impressive wide-play and a shot that struck the top of the crossbar, and goalkeeper McGregor emerged with any credit from a sorry afternoon that must have had many of the 21,913 crowd wishing they had gone shopping after all.
Perhaps the most glaring difference between the two sides came when not in possession.
Swansea, to their credit, pressed the ball at every opportunity, hassling and harrying their hosts into mistakes.
Hull, in contrast, were much more lethargic and this proved a telling factor in the game's only goal on 15 minutes.
When the ball found Shelvey 25 yards from goal, the midfielder should have been closed down immediately.

Swansea City: Ashley Williams sure of Bafetimbi Gomis goal threat
BBC Sport
Ashley Williams thinks Bafetimbi Gomis will be an able replacement for Wilfried Bony when he leaves for the African Cup of Nations in January.
Ivory Coast star Bony is Swansea City's leading goal scorer this season with eight goals in his last 16 appearances.
But Gomis started in his place in Swansea's 1-0 win at Hull and Williams was impressed with the French striker's performance.
"I was pleased for Bafe, I thought he had a really good game," Williams said. "It would have been nice for him to score but... he did well and I see him in training, he's a really good player.
"It's been a bit tough but with Wilf doing so well you have to be patient... but I'm sure he'll get a lot of chances.
"With Wilf going away in January he'll be the main man I presume and I'm sure he can get the job done."

Swans prepare for life without Wilfried Bony and Ki Sung-Yueng
Telegraph
Swansea City may be prepared for life without Wilfried Bony but their January headache is not all about the Ivorian striker who has scored more than a third of their Premier League goals this season.
Regardless of what the transfer window may bring, Bony will be missing for a month to play in the Africa Cup of Nations and Garry Monk, the Swansea manager, picked the Frenchman Bafe Gomis in his place on Saturday with Bony's absence in mind.
Monk will need a stand-in too for Ki Sung-Yueng, who will be away at the same time with South Korea in the Asian Cup. With the midfielder's Swansea career back on track after a loan exile to Sunderland last season, it is a blow to club and player.
Ki's match-winning goal at the KC Stadium may have been fortuitous as he inadvertently diverted a 15th minute Jonjo Shelvey shot past the Hull City goalkeeper Allan McGregor but his performance in the holding midfield role was solidly efficient. "He will be a big miss," Monk said.
The former Celtic player, 25, fell out of favour with Monk's predecessor, Michael Laudrup, and spent the 2013-14 season helping Gus Poyet's side to avoid relegation, sparking interest from other Premier League clubs. But Monk persuaded him to stay at the Liberty Stadium.
"I talked to him about the kind of football I wanted him to play, what I believe he can offer us and what I can do for him and he bought into that," Monk said. "He signed a new contract and was happy and you see that in his performances."