Premier League gameweek 18 review part three

Updated On Dec 19, 2017 by David Nugent

Gylfi Sigurdsson nets stunner vs Swansea: December 18th 2017The last Premier League game of gameweek 18 took place on Monday night, as Everton defeated struggling Swansea 3-1 at Goodison Park. Here is how it happened:

Everton 3-1 Swansea

The Toffees recorded a pretty comfortable victory over the visiting Swans, who offered very little attacking threat to the home goal.

The first half was slightly lacklustre. The first real incident of the game came on five minutes when Swansea striker Wilfried Bony sustained an injury and was replaced by young Chelsea loan star Tammy Abraham.

The visitors took a surprise lead on 35 minutes. Tom Carroll’s corner kick eluded everybody and found its way to Swans midfielder Leroy Fer at the back post, who tapped home. The effort was only Swansea’s tenth league goal of the campaign.

Everton hit back in first-half stoppage time though. Spanish midfielder Roque Mesa produced a clumsy challenge on Aaron Lennon in the penalty area and referee Jon Moss pointed to the spot.

Wayne Rooney saw his spot-kick tipped on to the post by Lukasz Fabianski, only for young striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin to fire home the rebound.

Everton came out with more purpose in the second half and took the lead on 64 minutes. Rooney found former Swansea man Gylfi Sigurdsson who cut in from the left and curled a superb effort from the edge of the area beyond Fabianski’s despairing dive. The Icelandic international showed very little celebration.

Everton all-but sealed the points on 74 minutes. Jonjoe Kenny played a nice one-two with Aaron Lennon before Martin Olsson prevented the young full-back progressing and referee Moss once again pointed to the spot.

Wayne Rooney stepped and this time made no mistake beating Fabianski with a powerful spot-kick to his left, despite the Swans goalkeeper getting a hand on the strike.

The effort was the 32-year-old’s tenth Premier League goal of the season. That means the former England captain has now scored ten-plus goals in his last 13 Premier League campaigns with Manchester United and Everton.

Everton then just coasted to the final whistle, as the Welsh side offered very little going forward in the last 15 minutes of the game.

The victory moved Everton up to ninth place in the Premier League. The Toffees are now a point behind eighth-place Leicester. However, they are also now just six points behind seventh-place Tottenham.

It is a sorry state of affairs for Swansea, as they are rock bottom of the table and four points away from safety. The Welsh side also remains the lowest scoring team in the top-flight, having scored just ten league goals this season, the same amount as Wayne Rooney. Paul Clement’s side are now red hot favourites to suffer relegation.

Attention turns to the EFL Cup

On Tuesday night, the attention turns to the EFL Cup, as Chelsea and Bournemouth go head-to-head at Stamford Bridge, while Championship surprise-package Bristol City host Manchester United in the quarter-finals of the competition.

All four teams have bigger priorities this season and are likely to name rotated starting line-ups. However, all four will be hoping to make it through to the last four of the competition.

We will review all the action from Tuesday night’s EFL Cup games as well preview Wednesday’s games in tomorrow’s article.

Will Swansea suffer relegation this season?

David Nugent Author

First off, I want to say hi and wish a warm welcome to all gambling aficionados out there! My name is David Nugent and I am editor-in-chief of LegalGamblingAndTheLaw.com. I have always enjoyed various sports, primarily soccer, as I am a die-hard Everton fan.

Over time, I learned more about sports betting and discovered the fascinating online gambling industry. Eventually,...

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