Three games, 39 shots and no goals. Something isn’t quite right at Swansea.

They have yet to win a game, yet to score a goal and yet there is a sense of optimism that still surrounds the Liberty Stadium. Home draws against Wigan and Sunderland are hardly the sort of thing that was dreamed of after they had disposed of Reading in the play-off final. A thorough spanking at the hands of Manchester City and Sergio Agüero was something of an opening day reality check. Yet still they smile.

It could just be that the Swans are determined to enjoy their first top flight campaign since 1982-83, but the quality of football on show in South Wales may be the more relevant factor. Against Sunderland Swansea played 565 passes, the exact same number as Manchester United made in their remorseless thrashing of Arsenal and four more than Liverpool managed in their comfortable success over Bolton.

Key to their midfield against Sunderland, as against Wigan, was Leon Britton. The tiny midfielder, who rejoined the club in January after an ill-judged 6 month spell at Sheffield United, marauded across the midfield third of the pitch, ensuring that Swansea kept hold of the ball. In the three games played so far, Britton has a pass completion rate of 92.22%; even against Manchester City he misplaced only four of his attempted passes.

There is no doubt that Swansea have come into the Premier League with a mindset to play the same sort of game that got them there in the first place. They pass the ball well, look to keep it on the ground and have a team that is largely better than the sum of its parts. Scott Sinclair proved to be an astute capture from Chelsea, and judging by his start at the club, new goalkeeper Michel Vorm may go on to be something of a hero. The likes of Nathan Dyer, Stephen Dobbie, Leroy Lita and Danny Graham, however, aren’t the first names that spring to mind when building a Premier League team.

It could be though, that such a reliance on people who have yet to prove themselves at the top level, particularly in the attacking third of the pitch, proves to be Swansea’s downfall. For all their domination against both Wigan and Sunderland, they still failed to take advantage and put the ball in the net. Against Steve Bruce’s side they mustered a fairly impressive eighteen shots at goal, but only three of them forced Simon Mignolet into a save. It can’t be argued that they didn’t work themselves into good positions either; 12 of those shots against Sunderland came from inside the penalty area.

Graham, brought in for £3.5M over the summer, may have scored 27 goals for Watford last season, but the 26 year old hasn’t always been that prolific. His previous best tally was 17 goals in 53 appearances for League One side Carlisle United, hardly the stuff of which Premier League futures are made. He may prove to be another DJ Campbell, who, after a goalless top flight spell with Birmingham, improved last season to net 13 times for Blackpool, or perhaps another Michael Chopra or Robert Earnshaw, who between them scored just 22 goals in 125 Premier League appearances, despite both being prolific in the Championship.

To add to their woes, Swansea don’t exactly seem to be solid enough at the back to get away with their lack of bite up front. That may sound silly when they have yet to concede a goal at the Liberty Stadium, but in those two home games they have conceded a fairly substantial 21 shots on goal, which pales into insignificance next to the 31 that Manchester City managed against them.

Michel Vorm has undoubtedly begun his Swansea career in superb fashion, and there is no reason to believe that the Dutch international goalkeeper will falter as the season moves on. Had they, however, been facing anything other than the notoriously toothless attacks of Wigan and Sunderland, it wouldn’t have been unreasonable to think that one or two of those shots might have found their way past Vorm. If Swansea continue to play in the open manner that Rodgers likes them to, then against better teams in better form they will be punished.

It’s going to be a long, hard season for Swansea. In my opinion it will probably end up in a trip back down to the Championship. If they do fall through the relegation trap door come May, however, they’ll leave behind the memory of some wonderful football and have given their fans plenty of reasons to keep smiling.

The chalkboard images used in this piece are taken from the Guardian’s interactive chalkboard feature.