Nathan Dyer strike enough to secure all three points for Swansea
Yesterday I did something I've never done before - I left the football at half time. Nothing to do with our performance - I was sadly feeling rather peculiar. This means I can only really relate what happened in the first half, and what I saw on a stream once I made it home.
Monk went with the same team that had performed so well at Old Trafford. Early signs were good - Routledge looked lively and he was almost played in by Bony but he was flagged offside. Sigurdsson had a shot from close range blocked, before that man Routledge again produced a cross which almost created the opener, but Bony's header was cleared by a Burnley defender when it seemed to be heading into the corner of the net. A sign of things to come - in the first half at least.
The game's only goal followed soon after. A ball into Sigurdsson's feet seemed innocuous enough, but the Icelander produced an absolutely ridiculous first time pass which split Burnley's defence and saw Dyer clean through. The winger showed once again how much he's improved in front of goal and coolly waited, waited, before slipping a finish low to the keeper's near post. The Burnley stopper got a hand to it, but he was helpless to keep it out of the net. 1-0 Swansea, and at this point we were definitely in the ascendancy.
Burnley did have chances though. Arfield went close early on, while on a few occasions a last-minute block was required to deny the visiting team. They were stifled fairly well though, and after a couple more half-chances for the Swans the half-time whistle went, with the score still at 1-0.
This is the point where I decided I felt too squiffy to stay for the rest of the match, and I missed the first 20 minutes of the second half while I was getting home in a taxi. From what I saw of the remainder of the match on a stream, and what people have said on Twitter, I didn't miss much! Burnley were harrying us, forcing us deeper and deeper, and all I can remember being completely honest is lying on my sofa shivering whilst the Swans engaged in act after act of last-ditch defending. Encouraging to a point, but you can't help but feel against most other teams we'd have been punished playing that deep for that long.
My main observations from what I saw would be that we should have tried to push up when we were under the cosh, and that (in the first half at least) Jonjo had a bit of a stinker. He must have given possession away half a dozen times in the first half alone, and it was disappointing he didn't look to keep things simpler when it was clear the more adventurous passes weren't working. That being said I didn't see most of the second half so I can't comment on how he fared after the break.
We've now got a home tie against Rotherham in the Carling Cup before West Brom visit the Liberty next weekend. Realistically we should be looking to win both of these games, and it's more than possible that come next Sunday we'll be celebrating four wins out of four in 2014/15. That'd give Monk a 42.85% win ratio as Swansea manager - eight percent better than Laudrup during his reign and only two percent less than Rodgers managed during his tenure.
Not bad for a novice, eh...