With both bosses set to do battle once the international break is over, who will get the first of this season's "Manager of the Month" gongs?
This season we've seen both Chelsea and our beloved Swansea City get off to one hundred percent starts in the league, as well as the Swans claiming victory in their Capital One Cup second round fixture at home to Rotherham. These results surely put both managers in the frame for Manager of the Month for August, but who were the victories against? Who's wins were more impressive? Seeing as we've got Chelsea next I thought we could have a look to see if we could glean any insight into who will ultimately get the award.
Firstly, our games. We started off away at Manchester United. It was supposed to be the dawn of a new era for them, and coming off an imperious looking pre-season everyone was expecting the Swans to be steamrollered. Not so. We gave as good as we got and our 2-1 win was no more than our performance deserved - it was a fairly even game but our persistence and patience in attack ultimately paid dividends.
Next up was Burnley at home. Newly promoted and definitively beaten by Chelsea on the opening day (more on that later) they put up a good fight, but a solitary Nathan Dyer goal was enough to claim a slim victory. We weren't at our best that day - far from it in fact - but we were worth the three points I thought, even though Burnley could feel hard done by to have not got anything from the match.
Their second half performance meant a draw would possibly have been a fair result, but only one shot on target for the visitors meant that Fabianski had little to do, and so we went into our next home game boasting a "two and o" record.
That home game was Rotherham in the League Cup second round, and despite fielding an almost entirely different side we controlled the game well and could, and definitely should have scored more. There were a couple of hairy moments in defence, but with a change team out it's always likely there'll be small breakdowns in communications - at one point Jefferson Montero even passed Federico Fernandez a note! We won 1-0 thanks to an excellent finish from Bafetimbi Gomis and we'll go on to face Everton at home in the next round.
The third home game in a row saw us facing West Brom, and this time the Swans turned up. Our first half performance was outstanding and goals from Dyer and Routledge saw us go in to the break two up, before Nathan Dyer again got his name on the scoresheet by notching his second of the match. Three in three for the ex-Southampton man, and he's on fire at the moment. The match finished like that, three nil, and we all of a sudden found ourselves looking down on everyone else in the Premiership bar Chelsea, separated from the London club only by goal difference.
With them in mind, who've they faced this season? As mentioned earlier, they started their season away at Burnley, and after an early scare when they went 1-0 down they turned the screw and blew Burnley away in a scintillating display of football. Three goals in seventeen first-half minutes - one of which included a sublime assist for Cesc Fabregas - meant that Chelesea quickly found themselves firmly in control, and from that point on they seemed to take their foot off the gas slightly, comfortable in the knowledge they'd secured themselves three points away from home. It finished that way, 3-1,
Next up were Leicester at home, and they were dispatched as professionally as Burnley had been. A two-nil home win saw goals from Diego Costa & Eden Hazard, but Chelsea should probably have won by a far wider margin. Twenty seven shots on goal would surely, on most days, result in more than two goals but two were enough, and Chelsea rolled on to their next game - away to Everton - in confident fashion.
This one proved to be less straightforward. A feast of goals saw Chelsea run out 6-3 winners, with Diego Costa again impressing. Everton were torn to shreds at the back, but at the same time Chelsea conceded three goals. Encouragement for the Swans as we've definitely got quality in the final third.
So where does that leave us in terms of manager of the month? Monk has four wins to Mourinho's three, while for Chelsea you can't really argue they've beaten any team "on a par" with them. Ok, Everton are an excellent side but we've beaten United away, so surely in terms of giving out awards for relative achievement Monk has done more?
In my opinion, there can only be one choice for manager of the month, and that's Garry Monk. Whether whoever makes these decisions agrees remains to be seen, but in my opinion guiding the Swans to three wins out of three in the league is more impressive than doing the same with the talent available to Jose Mourinho.
Garry Monk for Manager of the Month? Surely. As to Gylfi Sigurdsson for Player of the Month...that's another question...