Garry Monk: Swansea City manager eyes record points tally

Garry Monk was appointed Swansea City's permanent manager in May 2014

Garry Monk has targeted a Swansea City Premier League points record after seeing his side achieve 40 points for the season with a 1-0 win at Burnley.

Swansea reached 40 points, the figure clubs aim for at the start of every season to avoid relegation.

Monk was a member of Brendan Rodgers' 2012 squad who reached 47 points and now wants to surpass that total.

"That's the next aim... the next focus for us to use for motivation," said Swansea manager Monk.

Swansea did not get over the 40-point mark until the final game of 2013-14 after Monk had replaced the sacked Michael Laudrup.

With 11 games of the season remaining , Monk has challenged his players to set a new benchmark in the club's Premier League history.

"40 points is the first point of call for any club in the league, especially outside the bigger clubs," Monk added.

"40 points was the target for us to try and get there as soon as we could.

"We've managed to do that now and I talked about if we could get to that with games left to spare that 47 points is the best we've ever got in the Premier League.

"It's important for myself, the players and the club itself that we show progression each year.

"If we can manage to achieve that then that's exactly what it shows and it's my job to make sure the team does that."

Swansea moved up to eighth in the table after the narrow victory over struggling Burnley courtesy of Kieran Trippier's own goal.

Having beaten Manchester United the previous week, Monk was pleased his side completed another league double over a side at the other end of the table.

"It was a different type of performance, but I talked about being adaptable as a team - you have to be like that," Monk said.

"We've shown that many times this season. We've played good football and won games, but also been able to do the basics and scrap out and grind out wins.

"It was never going to be easy and we prepared for this type of game this week.

"The conditions and the pitch made it difficult for both teams to really play good football. Today was very important to us to show that."