Beating Manchester United or Arsenal is no better than Burnley, says Swansea manager Garry Monk

In his short time as Swansea City manager, Garry Monk has accumulated some significant achievements. He steered the club to their highest league position last year, masterminding more top-flight wins in a season than any of his predecessors. Perhaps more impressive, along the way he notched up league doubles against both Arsenal and Manchester United.

However, as he prepares once more to meet United, he reckons his four defeats of Arsène Wenger and Louis van Gaal – men who between them have roughly 50 times his length of managerial experience – are no more personally satisfying than beating Burnley.

“If you’d asked me that when I first took the job I’d have probably said ‘Yes’,” he admits when the suggestion is put to him that bettering the big boys means more than a routine win. “Now it’s pretty much an even keel on all of them. It’s strange but I didn’t feel any different inside when we did the double over Arsenal and Manchester United than I did when we beat Burnley or West Brom last season.”

Surely, though, outdoing two of the acknowledged masters of the managerial game must excite him, if nothing else make him think he is doing something right. “Of course I get satisfaction, but I don’t look at it as a personal battle,” he insists. “I'm not egotistical in terms of, ‘I need to beat him’ or ‘I need to show I’m better than him’. It’s for the good of the group.

“What I get more satisfaction out of is seeing the players perform and seeing us transferring what we do in the week into games. The result is just a by-product for me.”

But then, Monk does not give the impression of a man who gets carried away. Rational, calm, organised he is a believer in the adage that work pays off. And the more you work, the greater the reward. Van Gaal – a manager with a 100 per cent fail rate against him – would be impressed by his dedication to procedure, to background diligence, to what the Dutchman likes to call process.

This summer, for instance, while the United manager was presiding over the installation of a couple of pitches at the club's Carrington base, Monk oversaw Swansea’s move to an entirely new, state-of-the-art training ground, a place he designed as a reflection of his approach. Such is his embrace of detail, he even installed sleep pods there so that players could rest between training sessions.

“Actually, they’ve gone back,” he says of the pods. “That was for pre-season, to make sure they got the right preparation in that period. But now the players can go home after sessions, which they’re happy about.”

Not that the removal of the pods has meant the end of his obsessive search for improvement. “Details mean a lot to me. The problem I have is I am a perfectionist – so I am constantly doing my own head in with little details. You want the right sign, the right pitch, grass cut to the right length. You have to be meticulous with all those things and the players have to understand that. I do it so that players are motivated – but also so that they have no excuses. We have a no-excuse culture within the first team environment.”

This could be Sir Dave Brailsford speaking. At the heart of the Brailsford way with Britain’s cyclists was to get everything right in the preparation, so the performer could not blame anyone but themselves should they fall short. As a result, they would do everything to win. And there is no doubt that Monk is effectively transferring that policy to his team.

Unbeaten after three games this season, they are one of the most flexible sides in the Premier League, adding a quicker delivery to the passing tradition established by his predecessors. Moreover, unlike some of those Monk has beaten, he is a believer in adapting his team’s style to the tactical circumstance. And he has his plans for United.

“Well, I wouldn’t play myself,” the former centre-back says when asked how he will be setting his side up to meet the challenge of a Wayne Rooney freshly invigorated by his midweek European hat-trick. “The players will have information both offensively and defensively about what we will work on and what the strengths and weaknesses are. I think service is the key to any goal. A player won’t score a goal on his own unless he gets it off the keeper and dribbles through the whole team. We have a way that we think may nullify them.”

The plan has been committed to the Monk computer. “Yeah, I have everything on a hard drive. I film everything we do. I have a plan, a game model I try to follow, implement and then improve on.” But unlike his counterpart Van Gaal on Sunday afternoon, he will not arrive on the Liberty Stadium touchline carrying the plan in a folder under his arm. “For me that doesn’t help on the bench. You have your plan that everyone knows before they go on. Then I’m only really writing notes on the bench to tweak the model. At half‑time I will use those notes.”

Among the notes is certain to be the encouragement to get the ball to Jefferson Montero. Under Monk’s tutelage, the Ecuadorean, who arrived from the Mexican club Monarcas Morelia last summer, is quickly establishing himself as one of the most destructive attackers in the league. He is likely to give Matteo Darmian, United’s newly signed full-back, a feisty welcome to Wales.

“Jeff’s a top player, you’ve seen the reason I brought him in,” Monk says. “His one-to-one ratio is the highest in the league, he’s in quite exceptional form. If he gets in those situations he can be devastating. Getting the ball to Jeff is what we work on a lot. But not just to him. To André [Ayew] on the other side, to Bafi [Gomis], Gylfi [Sigurdsson], Jonjo [Shelvey].

“So we have good attacking options, our full-backs advance in a good way. If we do that, we can look forward to taking on anybody.” No matter what their manager’s depth of experience.