Tate was a rock in defence as they became the first Welsh club to reach the Premier League via a nail-biting play-off victory over Reading at Wembley in May, the climax of a remarkable eight years in the history of a proud club that not so long ago was sold for a solitary pound.
Even their kit sponsor, a firm of online bookmakers, have the Swans down as relegation favourites and the opening few weeks could reveal much about the club's readiness for top-flight football for the first time since 1983.
After City on Monday their next two trips are to Arsenal and Chelsea while their opening home fixture at the Liberty Stadium they share with rugby club Ospreys is at home to Wigan Athletic who have former manager Roberto Martinez at the helm.
The 28-year-old Tate, however, is relishing the prospect of his first taste of top-flight football and testing himself against the likes of world-class strikers Sergio Aguero, Robin van Persie and Fernando Torres.
After all, he says everything pales into insignificance compared to the 4-2 victory over Hull City eight years ago that prevented Swansea tumbling out of the Football League.
"No doubt, the Hull game was the most vital game in the club's history, without that win nothing else exists," former Manchester United trainee Tate told Reuters at Swansea's training ground just off the M4 motorway in the Welsh hills.
"Everything was on the line that day. If we had lost there would have been no promotions, no playoff final. It's impossible to over-state the consequences of losing that day to Hull. We would never have come back from that.
"That's why for me I can enjoy going to City on Monday. For the last eight years we have gone out to win every game we play and that will be exactly the same at City."
The Hull victory marked a turning-point for the club as a new era dawned under the astute chairmanship of Huw Jenkins who had bought the club a year earlier from Australian Tony Petty.
A plan was hatched to restore the club to its former glory and it has been an upward curve ever since, with three promotions, a move away from the endearing but crumbling old Vetch Field stadium in 2005 and a brand of football that has the purists purring.
Tate and midfielder Leon Britton are the sole survivors of that Swansea side in 2003, with Britton returning for a second spell with the Swans in January 2011 following a brief stint at Sheffield United.
Club skipper Garry Monk has also shared the journey, having joined from Southampton the season after.
ONE BETTER
He believes Swansea can go one better than Blackpool last season and survive playing "easy on the eye" football, whoever the opposition are.
"Yeah, it's a nice easy opener isn't it?" Monk told Reuters looking ahead to Monday's clash at City. "They've spent millions on world-class players but there is no sense of trepidation.
"It's a bit of a step into the unknown but if we go into playing scared football we'll be in a bit of trouble.
