That was more like it, wasn’t it? A manager-less Swansea City lost 2-1 away to Manchester City on Saturday in what was one of the best losses we could ever have hoped for.

After Garry Monk’s sacking in the week, the Swans travelled to the Etihad Stadium with Alan Curtis in charge. All of the fans wanted one thing in Manchester…. a performance – and we got exactly that.

From the off, Swansea seemed right up for it, chasing everyone from Raheem Sterling to Joe Hart. The passing was controlled, patient, and slick. The defence stood resolute, with Fernandez and Rangel coming back into the side with a new found confidence. Plus in attack, Sigurdsson looked dangerous with Ayew up-top and a special mention must go out to Wayne Routledge who really raised eyebrows after his rather poor last few months at the Liberty.

Routledge made effective runs from the right and he could have easily scored in the first five minutes when he was sent through on goal. He gave Gael Clichy a horrid afternoon.

Another person who I will gladly sing the praises of is Ki Sung-Yueng. The South Korean – in my opinion – has been a shadow of himself this season compared to last season. However, Ki was like his old-self for the Swans on Saturday. In the middle of the park, with Britton and Cork (who were also very good) Ki was measured, comfortable and contained David Silva terrifically well. He attacked well, but the balance between attack and sitting deep was perfectly executed. I’m hoping Ki will keep it up for this winter period now – if he does, we’ve gained a huge increment.

Another player who seemed to have a new attitude was Bafetimbi Gomis. The striker came on as a sub, and ran and ran, and then effectively set up Sigurdsson’s equaliser – which was wrongly ruled out by the man who surely just hates Swansea City… Robert Madley! Despite Gylfi’s goal being ruled out, the Frenchman kept on making runs and then with one of them aforementioned runs, he slammed the ball past Joe Hart to equalise late on. That’s the Gomis we love to see. The ecstatic celebration also goes to show how much it meant to him.

One last point I’d like to mention is the appearance of two men on the bench that for some reason Monk refused to consider for matchday squads. Jordi Amat and Matt Grimes are two young, capable players and I was very happy to see them in the squad, even though they didn’t get on the pitch for their first Premier League minutes of the season. With Amat especially, I do believe in a few years he could be Ashley Williams’ successor, and he’s already committed to Swansea. But keep him out of the team for so long and he’ll understandably call his agent to get him on the first flight back to Spain – and that would be a big loss. With all due respect, he’s better that Kyle Bartley too.

As supporters, we asked for a performance against Man City and the Swans delivered. At the end of the day we lost, yes, however this is now a tremendous platform to go and push on up the table under our new manager, whoever that may be.