Everton vs Swansea City. Premier League.
Goodison ParkAttendance37,580.
Tuesday 19 December 2017 09:24, UK
Gylfi Sigurdsson scored a superb strike against his former side as Everton beat Swansea 3-1 on Monday, with the result leaving the visitors bottom of the Premier League table.
The Swans opened the scoring at Goodison Park when Leroy Fer (34) tapped home at the back post but Everton levelled things up in the 46th minute with Dominic Calvert-Lewin lashing home the rebound from a saved Wayne Rooney penalty.
Sigurdsson - who made a £45m move from Swansea in the summer - produced a moment of magic to put the hosts ahead in the 64th minute with a fine curling effort, before Rooney (74) scored with Everton's second penalty of the game.
The result leaves Swansea in 20th place and four points from safety, meaning they will spend Christmas in the drop zone, while Everton move up one place into ninth with 25 points.
The game did not begin well for Swansea, who had to make a change inside five minutes as Wilfried Bony pulled up with an injury after a challenge against Ashley Williams. As he trudged off the field, Chelsea loanee Tammy Abraham came on in his place.
The best chance of the first half for Everton came in the 27th minute as they capitalised on some neat build-up play. Aaron Lennon flicked the ball through the legs of Alfie Mawson before powering into the box, but his eventual shot went just wide of the post.
Eight minutes later, Swansea scored the opener, their tenth Premier League goal of the season. As a corner was delivered, Everton defender Williams lost Fer, who surged into the six-yard box to tap home.
But Everton equalised in the first minute of injury time after Roque Mesa fouled Lennon in the box. Rooney stepped up for the spot-kick, but saw his effort brilliantly tipped onto the post by Lukasz Fabianski, before Calvert-Lewin hammered home the rebound.
It was quiet start to the second half with chances at a premium, but the lacklustre play was sparked to life by a stunning Sigurdsson strike. He cut in from left and let fly from just outside the box with a superb curled shot into the far corner and then gave a muted celebration against his former side.
Ten minutes later, Everton added another with their second penalty of the evening after Martin Olsson was penalised for a foul on Jonjoe Kenny, although replays showed it was outside of the box.
Rooney took for a second time, dispatching into the corner to take his tally to ten Premier League goals this season.
Sam Allardyce: "A team that comes from 1-0 down to win shows that there is a lot of character which may have been missing before I got here. That character was there today when we needed it.
"You need a special player sometimes to pull something out of the bag and that was Gylfi. It settled us down and from there, it looked nice and comfortable but it wasn't like that until the second goal went in. It was a great three points considering how poorly we played in the first half."
Paul Clement: "It's a difficult job at any level, you want to win, you want to play well. It's not something I've been used to me in my career, even here last year. As an assistant, I was losing one in 10. It's the opposite.
"It's not a nice experience, I'm learning a lot from it, I will keep fighting, I will work hard, I've worked hard to get to this position and I'm not going to give up on it, I will keep going."
Jamie Carragher: "People always talk about how it [a goal before half-time] affects Swansea, but don't forget the lift it gives Everton. They are a far better team than Swansea, but the visitors were playing well and doing well in the first half.
"You always expected Everton to come into it in the second half, and the Swansea players going in at half-time would have felt that the game was going to be a struggle now. It's those little details that are costing Swansea.
"Looking at them, they've got major problems. I don't see them getting out of the relegation zone, there's already a gap created of four or five points just to get out of it."
It was another impressive shift from Gueye and co-commentator Davie Provan compared the midfielder's performance to those put in by N'Golo Kante.
As a central midfielder should, he was there to mop up any mistakes and pulled the strings in the middle of the park.
Both teams are next in Premier League action on Saturday, with Everton on Sky Sports as they welcome Chelsea to Goodison Park for the lunchtime game. Swansea face Crystal Palace at the Liberty Stadium in a 3pm kick-off.
