Western Counties Soccer

Everton’s form appeared to be improving at just the right stage in the season, but it was brought to halt after a 0-0 draw with Swansea.

Everton were struggling with the prospect of relegation trouble only a few weeks ago, but two back-to-back victories in the league has forced them into the top half of the table. The wins over Burnley and Aston Villa see them eighth in the table, but they could only manage a goalless draw against Swansea. This was disappointing especially considering that Swansea were playing only with 10 men after former Liverpool midfielder Shelvey was sent off in the 72nd minute.

Roberto Martinez decided to rest striker Romelu Lukaku, who has been involved in every league match up until now. The striker was not brought into the match until the sending-off gave Everton a real hope of getting three points. Martinez gambled on the form of striker Samuel Eto’o, who almost scored a hat-trick against Burnley last week. The former Chelsea man, though, was unable to find the back of the net, as Swansea defended sternly despite the man disadvantage. A disappointing aspect for Everton would be their inability to trouble Swansea goalkeeper Lucas Fabianski. They had only three shots on target compared to Swansea’s one shot.

“It was a frustrating game for both sides. We kept a clean sheet against a tough opponent and we tried, but it keeps us on our unbeaten run. We’re doing well and we’ve got two big games this week. We’re not too disappointed - it was a tough draw and if you’re getting a draw, you want it to be 0-0. We’re not a team that doesn’t score many goals. We like to score lots of goals but we kept a clean sheet, which is a positive and a draw at home keeps us going,” said Howard.