Wilfried Bony 'more effective' than Christian Benteke - Garry Monk

Wilfried Bony scored two goals for the Ivory Coast at the 2014 World Cup

Swansea City striker Wilfried Bony is "more effective" than Aston Villa's Christian Benteke according to Swans boss Garry Monk.

The two forwards are due to face each other as the two sides meet in the Premier League at the Liberty Stadium on Boxing Day.

Monk says Ivorian Bony has the edge over the Belgian.

"I'd say Benteke probably covers more yards than Bony, but Bony's more effective in what he does," said Monk.

"They are both very powerful. They are different types of players to be honest, but both very much quality players."

Benteke, 24, returned to the Villa side in October for the first time since 29 March after recovering from a ruptured achilles tendon.

He has scored twice in Villa's last four matches including the 1-1 home draw against Manchester United in their last game.

"He's coming into a little bit of form now Benteke," said Monk.

"I always knew he would. I know he had that serious injury and it always takes a bit of time to get back that sharpness. That only comes with games.

"Obviously right now he's looking sharp and a big threat for us and that's something our defenders and as a team we are going to have to deal with."

Christian Benteke scored on his Premier League debut for Aston Villa against Swansea City in September 2012.

The Swans are currently eighth in the Premier League five points above Villa who are 12th in the table.

Swansea have only lost once at home all season to a last minute Christian Eriksen goal 2-1 against Tottenham on 14 December.

Monk hopes his side can continue their good form at the Liberty, but is expecting a tough clash against Paul Lambert's side.

"You look at their last performance against Manchester United, I thought they deserved actually to win the game, I thought they played very, very well," said Monk.

"They've got a good squad, they've got good players and they will be very dangerous on Boxing Day.

"It's one we are going to have to be wary of but we are at home.

"I think if we give the type of performance that we've been giving at home in pretty much all our games, I think that we can be confident going into the game that we can be on the front foot and try and impose ourselves on Aston Villa.

"There will be periods throughout the game where they will test us and we have to be ready for that but confidence wise we should go into that game firing on all cylinders.

"Hopefully we can get the win."