The Swansea City captain will lead his side into action against their local rivals on Saturday believing that the difference in spending sprees between the two sides should lead to the visitors having the ‘favourites’ tag hung around their necks.
Speaking to the Western Mail, Monk said “You can’t spend that sort of money and put players on those wages and not be favourites
“They should always start these games as favourites, and I think they do. They are worth those price tags and they have some great players.
“But we like the tag of underdogs. We proved that last season, not just against Cardiff, but against other teams as well.
“We can compete with them and even beat them now and again. We’ll be using that to keep us up for the game.
“There wasn’t a derby for so long until last season, and they were three great games,” said Monk, who made his 150th Swansea appearance at Scunthorpe last weekend.
“It wasn’t like a normal derby clash where everyone was trying to smash each other.
“Both teams tried to play football and it had a bit of everything.
“It’s going to be no different this weekend.
“It’s the biggest game of the season – and we want to get one over on them.
“They’re a real attacking force and have been scoring goals for fun,” he said.
“There are threats from all over the pitch, not just from Chopra.
“They’ve got a really good squad now, and they’re not second in the table for nothing.
“We’ve got to be right on our game to be near them.
“We’re at home, so the emphasis is on us to take the game to them.
“You hope your form and momentum will count for something, but it sometimes doesn’t in derby games.
“It’s taken its time, but we’re ticking along nicely now,” said Monk.
“We lost two key players in Jordi Lopez and Jason Scotland, but the majority are still here, and we’ve added some quality players.
“We want people to forget the people who have left.
“They did a great job for us when they were here.
“But the club moves on, and we move on as players.
“You can see the confidence in Craig Beattie now, and that will spur the other strikers on.
“Everything’s going in the right direction and there’s still a lot more to come from us.
“If we go into the Christmas period in contention near the top, we’ll be trying to stay involved for the rest of the season.”