Monk bullish ahead of season opener at champions

Swansea City manager Garry Monk is confident his side can put on a strong performance when they visit Premier League champions Chelsea in their season opener next weekend.

The Welsh club have been dealt arguably the toughest start in the top flight, but will take confidence from their opening-day triumph over Manchester United at Old Trafford last term.

Swansea brought the curtain down on their pre-season schedule with a goalless home draw against Deportivo La Coruna on Saturday.

"We look strong as a squad," said Monk, who led Swansea to a record eighth-placed finish last term. "We've got options as well which is great.

"Touch wood everyone's come through today, so we have a fully-fit squad going into that weekend.

"We're under no illusions, it's probably the hardest task to start the season that any of the teams in the league could have, going to the home of the champions.

"But it's one that we're going to look forward to, we're going to train well this week and focus and hopefully go up there and put on a good performance."

Although pre-season has now concluded for Swansea, Monk insists he is yet to settle on a starting XI for next weekend, with the likes of Jonjo Shelvey and Jefferson Montero having put in strong performances against Depor.

"It's not 100 per cent clear," he added. "We'll have a good week's training, see how the players are and I don't think you can ever, with any certainty, have a team because things happen so quickly in football.

"We'll see how the week goes, see how the training goes and then select the team towards the end of the week."

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