Players will "relish" City showdown, says Monk

Garry Monk insists his players will relish Saturday's trip to Manchester City as they look to continue their fine recent form (3pm).

The Swans head to the Etihad Stadium on the back of a memorable victory over Arsenal - a result which saw Monk's men extend their unbeaten run to three matches.

Swansea now sit fifth in the Premier League table, just three points behind City ahead of this weekend's clash between the two sides.

Manuel Pellegrini's men are already eight points adrift of league leaders Chelsea with a quarter of the season already gone, but Monk is well aware of the task that awaits his side at the Etihad - a stadium that the Swans are yet to register a Premier League point at since winning promotion three years ago.

"It's a tough place to go," he said. "They have an extremely good squad and are the defending champions.

"But it is a game that we are looking forward to and the players will relish it.

"It is a chance to see how far we have come as individuals and as a group, but we need to go there and put on a performance that hopefully warrants some points."

The Swans have made their best start to a top flight season under the guidance of Monk, despite many pundits tipping them to struggle this term.

And with five clean sheets to their name already - second only to in-form Southampton - Monk is hopeful that his charges to continue their recent good work.

"I said at the start of the season that we will take each game at a time," he said. "If you look too far ahead you can lose track, but we are just focussing on Saturday and we'll see where that takes us.

"We all look at the league table, but my focus is to attack every game and hopefully that gives us enough points to stay in the top half.

"All i care is that we compete well and we have done that so far."

Monk also confirmed there were no fresh injury concerns following the recent international break.

Wilfried Bony, meanwhile, helped Ivory Coast to qualify for the 2015 African Cup of Nations and with the tournament getting underway in January, the striker could miss up to three weeks of Premier League action.

"Everyone came back in one piece and there are no injury worries," he said. "This international break wasn't quite as intense as the last time so that was good.

"Wilfried is due back in later today (Thursday) and we'll have a recovery session with him and then he will train tomorrow.

"Obviously it is disappointing to lose him for those games but we wish him well and we have other players to step in and hopefully they can do the job."