Championship leaders Swansea 'deserve respect'

Swansea City go into their all-Welsh showdown with Wrexham deserving respect, says goalkeeper Lawrence Vigouroux.

Vitor Matos' side top the Championship going into the fourth weekend of the new season following an unbeaten start to the league campaign.

Their midweek win over Watford had pundits purring over their eye-catching performance, with the one-touch team move for the opening goal going viral.

It prompted boss Matos to insist his side are on the right track to replicating the style so associated with the club's Premier League heyday.

But while it is – very – early days in the new campaign, Vigouroux says the Swans' start will not have gone unnoticed.

"I think a lot of the teams now will show us a bit of respect in terms of how we've been playing recently," said Chile international Vigouroux.

"And I think we deserve that at the moment because I think we've played really well - but it can change in an instant."

That warning comes as Swansea prepare to welcome a Wrexham side who look back to their old selves. Their midweek 3-0 win at Millwall ended Phil Parkinson's search for a first victory this term, with the deadline day recruitment of Joe Worrall and Callum O'Hare adding to their options.

Vigouroux accepts the north Wales visitors will come providing a different test to what Swansea have faced so far, something that proved too much for Matos' side in the last meeting, a 2-0 home win at the Racecourse in March.

"We know what they'll bring," summed up Vigouroux, noting Wrexham will ask physical, set-piece and work-rate questions of Swansea.

But the 32-year-old insists the early pacesetters will stick to their guns in the heat of a north versus south Wales battle, even if the aforementioned respect brings its own challenges.

"If it's open then we have the opportunity to do that," said Vigouroux when asked if they can replicate early impressions every week in the Championship.

"Each game is different, each team will come here with different game plans and we've got to find a way of breaking that down.

"It's still early in the season, we just have to keep our feet on the ground, keep working hard because it can change so quickly.

"We have three or four games before the international break, so we want to put ourselves in a really good position before then, but we have to take it game by game."

Swansea's encouraging start to the season means they are currently the highest placed Welsh side - having previously been the first club from the country to reach the Premier League - which inevitably adds an extra rivalry with the Hollywood-owned Welsh outfit that has sights set firmly on overtaking them.

While the distance between the Racecourse and the Swansea.Com Stadium suggests this is not a traditional derby – and Matos was quick to remind that the south Wales clash with Cardiff City still matters most to Swansea – there will be an edge to the late kick-off in front of a sell-out crowd.

Wrexham were beaten in Swansea in December last season, but still finished as the highest-placed Welsh club courtesy of their push for the play-offs.

"Of course Cardiff is the main derby – that's the one when the fixtures come out, you look for," said Vigouroux.

"This one, in the last couple of years, has been getting there. The atmosphere in the Cardiff one was a crazy atmosphere; this one is a bit below that but it's still a big game, it's north versus south and we're looking forward to try and show everyone that we're the best team in Wales."