Premier League Weekend Review: It's not just Hodgson who has under-estimated Swansea

Plenty to smile about . . . Swansea boss Garry Monk

Garry Monk added his name to Roy Hodgson's critics when his players were ignored for England's European Championship campaign. Ralph Ellis says the Swansea boss has good reasons to feel miffed...

While everybody else has done the ice bucket challenge, Roy Hodgson has had to suffer bucket loads of something far less pleasant. There'll be another lot heading his way if England don't beat Switzerland tonight.

Some of the stick he's suffered has been stupid, some of it over the top, some of it coming with an agenda. But if there was one piece of criticism that was justified it came from Swansea's boss Garry Monk.

Why, he wanted to know, had Hodgson never bothered to cross the Severn Bridge to South Wales to visit the Liberty Stadium and take a look at Nathan Dyer, Wayne Routledge or Jonjo Shelvey? It's a fair question, and one I asked during the early part of last season when Steven Caulker, at that time playing superbly for Cardiff, was also being ignored.

It makes you wonder if the FA's accountants class Wales as foreign travel and put it under a different budget for his expenses. Maybe the 6.40 it costs to drive over the estuary between Bristol and Newport is too much for the mandarins at Wembley to sign off.

Whatever the reason, it's time we all sat up and took some notice of Swansea's outstanding start to the Premier League season rather than dismiss it as one of those quirky things that will go away.

Who would have thought that Garry Monk would arrive at Stamford Bridge this Saturday and shake hands with Jose Mourinho as the only two managers in the top division with a 100% record? Yet it is pretty clear that despite that start there are not too many people taking Monk seriously. The Swans are an astonishing 13.5n/a to win at Chelsea - the sort of price normally reserved for a relegation team taking on one of the big boys.

That is pretty condescending to the way Monk has gone about his job since he was put in charge after the sacking of Michael Laudrup last season. Ten years as a player, going through all four divisions, meant he started with the vital benefit of a deep understanding of the culture of the club, and knew that the opening priority was to restore a team spirit fractured by some of Laudrup's foreign signings.

Having done that, his summer handling of the transfer window was superb. Capturing Lyon striker Bafetimbi Gomis on a free transfer was brilliant business, keeping Wilfried Bony on his books was even better. Letting Ben Davies move to Spurs in exchange for bringing Gylfi Sigurdsson back was inspired. Paying just 8million for Federico Fernandez was a bargain when you see what others spent on his Argentine World Cup team mates.

As for those players Monk believes should get an international chance, well the pace of Dyer is a massive threat while Shelvey can drive a game every bit as effectively, but with a greater range of passing, than Fabian Delph who is expected to make his full debut in Switzerland tonight.

Matched at around 3.55/2 pre-season for a top ten finish, Swansea are now just 1.75/7 and that suggests the market is waking up to their potential, even if Hodgson still doesn't seem to be sure how to get to the Liberty Stadium. Maybe he could  make life easier and just go to Stamford Bridge this weekend.