Everton 3-1 Swansea via GrandOldTeam
Sigurdsson super strike sinks Swans.
A far from fluent performance from Everton saw three more points earned and the club move up to ninth in the table with the highlight of the night being a superb strike from Gylfi Sigurdsson against his former club.
Monday night football at the Grand Old Lady pitched a resurgent Everton against the side propping up the table Swansea City.
For his fifth game in charge of Everton since taking over from David Unsworth, Big Sam Allardyce was keen for no complacency to set it and for the squad to carry on the recent run of encouraging results. To achieve his aims, he selected a starting eleven of: Pickford, Martina, Williams, Holgate, Kenny,
Gana Gueye, Schneiderlin, Lennon, Rooney (c), Sigurdsson and Calvert-Lewin.
For the visitors from South Wales and facing two of their former favourites in Williams and Sigurdsson, Swansea manager Paul Clement opted for a line-up to defend and play on the break in starting:Fabianski, Naughton, Fernandez (c), Mawson, Olsson, Fer, Mesa, Carroll; Dyer, Narsingh and Bony.
In charge of proceehdings on a cold, foggy evening was referee Jonathan Moss.
As early as the fourth minute the visitors were forced into a change as Bony walked off very slowly to be replaced by Abrahams.
Swansea posed the first real threat as Narsingh played a one-two with Abrahams before shooting low for an early save for Pickford.
In a rather quiet Goodison, it was fifteen minutes before Everton registered their first corner which was easily cleared by Swansea.
A nice move involving Holgate, Gueye, Sigurdsson and Martina ended with Rooney lifting his shot over the bar. Holgate then found DCL with a long ball that the striker controlled with his chest, turned and beat his man before not getting sufficient power in the shot to trouble Fabianski.
A midfield giveaway by Rooney saw Narsingh and Abrahams again break quickly but the rising shot from Narsingh cleared the bar.
A nice through ball from Holgate saw a sweet turn from Lennon, but he snatched at his shot that skewed wide of the near post.
Referee Moss angered the home crowd by booking Holgate for what appeared a perfectly good tackle, and Pickford easily dealt with the resulting free kick curler from Carroll.
Swansea earned their first corner in the 35th minute and the cross went through the entire Everton defence for Fer to run onto and net easily.
Dyer was booked for a poor tackle on Kenny and Olsson fired a 25-yarder just wide.
With one extra minute signalled, Everton were awarded a penalty when Rooney played Lennon into the box and he went down, Rooney’s spot kick cannoning back off the post for DCL to score on the rebound.
Not a great first half at all, and the get out of jail card used, Everton had been far from coherent and reliant on too much long ball, I counted ten in the first 35 minutes.
Half Time: 1-1
A quiet opening to the second half saw Fernandez retrospectively booked for a pull back on DCL.
Sigurdsson cut in off the left flank to fire in a low 25-yard effort that Fabianski dealt with. Everton still weren’t firing on all cylinders and the hour mark saw Tom Davies come on to replace Schneiderlin.
Gana Gueye stayed down after a challenge from Mesa, but eventually picked himself up to play on.
Everton took the lead in the 64th minute with a superb strike from Gylfi Sigurdsson. Rooney found the midfielder out wide on the left and he again cut in before firing a stunning curling shot beyond the reach of a despairing Fabianski.
Ten minutes later, the points were secured as Jonjoe Kenny broke into the Swansea box and was brought down, referee Moss unhesitatingly pointing to the spot for a second Everton penalty. Wayne Rooney stepped up thump home an emphatic spot kick.
Swansea immediately replaced Dyer with Ayew.
Ademola Lookman came on for the hard-working Aaron Lennon on 78 minutes, Clucas replacing Carroll two minutes later as Swansea made their final change.
An excellent ball from Sigurdsson sent DCL clear but a slight pull on the shoulder was enough to deny him the power and direction in his shot.
Sandro Ramirez replaced Wayne Rooney ahead of three extra minutes being signalled, three minutes that saw just a deflected shot from Lookman earn a corner
Full Time: 3-1
Without a standout candidate for Man of the Match, a solid defensive effort from Ashley Williams and another hard working show from Dominic Calvert-Lewin might be worth considering.
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