For the second consecutive week, Swansea City had to settle for a share of the points, coming back from behind again in the second half to add another point to their tally, against Everton.
Whilst last week at West Brom, it might have been a point gained – we didn’t play well and were probably worst than the Baggies, but this weekend’s 1-1 draw most definitely felt like a missed opportunity and two points dropped.
You can see why the Everton fans want rid of their manager, Sam Allardyce. They have some talented players in that team but produced a turgid display that lacked style and substance.
But despite that, we found ourselves 1-0 down going into the break. Jordan Ayew had our best chance of the half whilst another chance saw a shot deflected off the line for a corner, as our goal looked like a matter of when not if.
It never came, and Everton made the most of their one big chance with just two minutes left to play of the first half. Goalline technology confirmed that the ball had gone over the line, and Kyle Naughton was the unfortunate one to get the last touch as he tried to clear the ball off the line.
It was woefully poor marking on our part as Naughton got caught between two Everton players at the far post. A pass was squared across, leaving a clear shooting chance for Bolasie that Fabianski could only parry, he parried the second effort as well but somehow the ball took a deflection off Naughton and went over the line, giving Everton an undeserved lead. The goal was so undeserved in fact, that the Everton fans finally made themselves heard with a chant of “1-0 and we’re f*cking shit!”
We had 3 shots on target in that first half, the same amount that Everton had all game (they didn’t manage one in the second half), plus a further four after the break, but we kept on missing chances until the 71st minute.
After a corner that wasn’t cleared properly, the ball fell to Tom Carroll and his miskicked volley kindly fell to Jordan Ayew, and he was showed the finishing quality that we’ve so desperately been missing since his sending off at Huddersfield. From the left side of the penalty area, he slotted the ball into the bottom, opposite corner of the net, and it was game on from there.
It was a fully deserved equaliser, but we were so lucky not to have been 2-1 down just a few minutes later. Everton went down the right, a low cross came in and Coleman came sliding in with a shot that struck the bar from just 6 yards.
We created further chances ourselves but we couldn’t find that winner in the final 20 minutes, but the performance itself showed promise and character, if it did lack a clinical edge in front of goal. Carvalhal I’m sure will take the positives once again, and he sounded in an upbeat mood when talking about our chances of avoiding relegation.
“This is the most important thing. We know we must try to win points ourselves and if we do that, we will stay up.
“We don’t have to look at what others are doing – we must do our job.”
“We will try to carry on playing like we did against Everton and if we do that, I think we will get enough points.”
Despite the result not being what we deserved, and extending our winless run to three, we increased the gap from the bottom three by another point, to five, thanks to Chelsea’s excellent comeback at Southampton in the early kick-off.
Bottom of the Premier League
| 13 | Brighton | 33 | -15 | 35 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | Huddersfield | 34 | -27 | 35 | |||||||
| 15 | West Ham | 32 | -18 | 34 | |||||||
| 16 | Crystal Palace | 34 | -18 | 34 | |||||||
| 17 | Swansea | 33 | -19 | 33 | |||||||
| 18 | Southampton | 33 | -20 | 28 | |||||||
| 19 | Stoke | 33 | -33 | 27 | |||||||
| 20 | West Brom | 33 | -26 | 21 | |||||||
