Garry Monk sprung a reasonably big surprise on Saturday evening when he left Jack Cork out of his starting line up against Chelsea, the first time he had left the player out since signing him.

That particular statement shows you just how much of a surprise it was and I am sure that had you asked Swans fans for their predicted line up ahead of the team sheets at Stamford Bridge being released then the name of Cork would have been on at least 95% of them.

The midfielder signed from Southampton back in the January transfer window and was a starter in the team straight away. He made 15 straight starts for the Swans at the back end of last season, scoring just the one goal at Newcastle back in April.

Swans fans were pretty convinced that the selection choice for the game at Chelsea was between Shelvey and Sigurdsson but Garry spring a surprise by picking them both in a bold attacking line up to take on the Champions.

And his decision to do so was almost vindicated as the Swans took the game to the Champions almost from the off and could have easily sprung a big surprise with the better chances falling our way.

Cork of course was introduced to the action in the first half due to the injury to Ki Sung-Yeung and he slipped back into the midfield as we would expect him to despite picking up an early card after coming on.

“It was very tough to leave Jack out," said Monk "but when came on he showed how good he is. They can all offer different things but I wanted to be attacking and be on that front foot and have our best ball players out on the pitch and I thought we showed that.”

The Swans will be waiting on the fitness of Ki during this week but it will again be difficult to drop Cork. I would imagine that Monk will pick a relatively attacking team again on Saturday but this time I can see the team containing Cork as a starter.

Photo: Action Images

Dull1Thomas added 11:21 - Aug 10 Not tough at all - had to keep Jonjo, Ki & Siggy happy.
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