Monk hits out at Wenger after City defeat

Swansea City manager Garry Monk directed a thinly veiled dig at Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger following his side’s 4-2 Premier League defeat to Manchester City on Sunday.

Monk’s men picked up a 1-0 win at Arsenal on Monday, but Wenger accused Swansea of refusing to play football as they sat back and awaited their chance to pounce.

Swansea adopted a different approach for the visit of City and Monk was keen to point this out at his post-match news conference.

“I wanted the players to go out there and send a message to the world today,” he said. “We got criticised on Monday for ‘not playing’, so I wanted the players to show that we can go toe-to-toe with anyone when we choose to.

“I think we showed that today. Had we managed those bits [when Swansea conceded] and taken our chances a little bit better, we would have come away with something.

“When we choose to do what we want to do, we can be effective.

“We chose to do what we wanted on Monday night and we chose today to go toe-to-toe with one of the bigger teams.

“Unfortunately for us, we didn’t quite get the result we deserved, but I think the performance and the chances we created showed what a strong group we’ve got and how much we’re growing as a group of players, management and staff. Hopefully next season it only gets better.”

Former Swansea man Wilfried Bony rounded off the scoring for City in stoppage time having been afforded a warm reception by home fans at the Liberty Stadium.

“Wilfried’s contribution to the club was fantastic and he deserved that [reception],” added Monk. “He paid his respects by not celebrating, that’s his choice.

“He had a fantastic relationship here between the supporters and himself and they obviously felt right to give him that reception, which was great to see.”

The result ended Swansea’s chances of qualifying for the UEFA Europa League, with Monk quipping: “I’ll have to take the sun cream back. Gutted.”