Swansea City vs. Everton Preview

Everton travel to the Liberty Stadium tomorrow looking to avoid a third straight Premier League defeat when they meet Brendan Rodgers’ stylish Swansea City.

Things haven’t gone quite as expected for David Moyes in the last ten days. His plan to ensure smooth passage to Wembley by not turning up for the derby backfired when his well-rested strongest XI could only manage a home draw with Sunderland, and after the somewhat unfortunate defeat to Arsenal in midweek he is now faced with the prospect of heading into Tuesday’s all-important FA Cup replay with a team bereft of form or confidence.

A win against Swansea would definitely provide a timely boost, but it’ll be no easy task on a ground where they’ve beaten the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City this season. The key to Swansea’s success has been the way their midfield trio of Joe Allen, Leon Britton and Gylfi Sigurdsson have retained possession and dictated the tempo of games, and Moyes will have to decide whether he’s going to try and match or bypass them.

Unlike the vast majority of newly promoted teams, Swansea haven’t panicked when results have been hard to come by, which has helped give them the air of an established Premier League team – something which shows in their play. They’re positive without being reckless, and while they’re far from a free-scoring side they do have midfielders in Sigurdsson and Scott Sinclair who are chipping in with goals to ease the burden on striker Danny Graham. It also helps that they have an excellent goalkeeper in Michel Vorm.

Only Manchester City have conceded fewer goals at home than Swansea, who have lost just two league games at the Liberty since being promoted (putting them on a par with Manchester United, Tottenham, Arsenal and Newcastle), but the fact remains that they gave arguably the worst showing of any of the season’s visiting sides at Goodison back in December, when a Leon Osman goal secured a comfortable 1-0 win.

With Jack Rodwell, Darron Gibson and Seamus Coleman all unlikely to play it seems as though Everton’s best strategy is to break down the flanks with Leighton Baines/Steven Pienaar and Royston Drenthe. That’s if Moyes sticks with the mercurial Drenthe, whose unwillingness to track back remains a major issue to the manager, especially away from home.

It’ll be interesting to see what sort of team Moyes picks for this one with the cup replay just three days after. He’s heaped a lot of pressure on himself and the players already by sending out a weakened team in the derby before the first Sunderland game, so whether or not he’ll risk essentially throwing away another three points in exchange for fresher legs on Tuesday is the big question.

I don’t think Moyes will disrupt the back four again after Jagielka’s horrendous showing at Anfield, but I imagine Phil Neville will be deployed in centre midfield, where he could perhaps distract Allen, Britton and Sigurdsson with his Hulk Hogan finger points and high-pitched screams. I also expect to see Victor Anichebe lumbering along the right wing and Denis Stracqualursi up front.

I reckon the starting XI will look something like this:

Howard; Hibbert, Heitinga, Distin, Baines; Anichebe, Fellaini, Neville, Pienaar, Osman; Stracqualursi

Everton 0 Arsenal 1

Thomas Vermaelen’s 8^th minute header was enough to secure all three points for Arsenal on a night when Everton really could have done with regaining some momentum.

Arsene Wenger sent his team out to attack from the off, and in the opening twenty minutes Everton were totally overran as the visitors created a handful of excellent goal scoring opportunities. The best of the early chances fell to Aaron Ramsey, who blazed over after Robin van Persie’s knockdown left him with Tim Howard’s goal at his mercy.

Minutes later Ramsey was in again thanks to good work from Theo Walcott, but this time his shot was deflected over the bar. The resulting corner saw Vermaelen inexplicably beat four defending players to the ball and head Arsenal into a well-deserved lead, and the advantage was almost doubled soon after when Howard was forced into a smart save by van Persie and Tony Hibbert blocked Ramsey’s effort from the rebound.

Everton finally started to get a foothold in the game after David Moyes switched Tim Cahill and Marouane Fellaini, who was struggling to get into the game, and a half-chance for Leon Osman was followed by a wrongly disallowed goal for Royston Drenthe. Leon Osman intercepted a poor clearance from Wojciech Szczesny and fed Nikica Jelavic, and an exchange between the Croatian and Tim Cahill led to Drenthe getting one on one and slotting the ball passed Szczesny.

It was the first of many baffling offside calls that went against Everton – Moyes claimed there had been five incorrect decisions in his post-match interview – and there’s no telling how things may have turned out had Drenthe’s goal stood.

Despite being lucky to still be in the game after 20 minutes, Everton began the second half looking capable of getting something out of it. There was more effort made to get up and support Jelavic (who made a tit of himself by falling flat on his face while trying to barge Vermaelen over), and though they lacked the quality to create any real gilt-edged chances, it was still encouraging to see the Blues pushing forward.

Arsenal continued to look dangerous themselves, and again tried having someone pull out onto Hibbert and nod down one of Alex Song’s floated passes; this time it was Kieran Gibbs setting up van Persie, who shockingly enough struck the post. Leighton Baines then flashed a superb ball across the Arsenal goal and the excellent Tomas Rosicky felt he should have had a penalty when Drenthe bundled into him at the other end. It was all rather exciting.

Drenthe fired over from the edge of the box just before he and Osman were hooked in exchange for Magaye Gueye and Victor Anichebe (a truly worthless pair), and the Gunners again went close to making it 2-0 when van Persie fell on his arse while trying to convert Gervinho’s cut-back.

Cahill was replaced by Denis Stracqualursi with ten minutes to go as Moyes pushed for an equaliser, but for all the Argentinian’s hard work and enthusiasm he still looks like Carlos Tevez would if the aliens from Space Jam stole his talent.

Moyes can be happy that his side matched Arsenal for 70 minutes or so, but it must also worry him that only Wigan have scored fewer goals in the Premier League this season. Even though Jelavic looks like he could be the answer up front there’s still the question of how chances are going to be created for him, especially with there being no guarantees that either Drenthe or Steven Pienaar will be here next season.

Everton are crying out for a central playmaker to provide craft and guilse the final third, and Moyes needs to do anything he can to get one in the summer – even if it means sacrificing someone like Jack Rodwell or Phil Jagielka. The team as it is will get by OK, but if Moyes wants to get back into Europe he needs a better footballer than Cahill supporting Jelavic.

Next up is Swansea away, where a win could potentially lift Everton above their opponents into 8^th and, perhaps more importantly, provide a timely boost going into the replay at Sunderland.

Everton vs. Arsenal Preview

After a crazy week which saw David Moyes pretty much throw the Anfield derby before watching his team struggle to breakdown a stubborn Sunderland side, Everton will be looking to restore the positive atmosphere created by wins over Man City, Chelsea and Tottenham when they host Arsenal tonight.

The Gunners are enjoying arguably their best form of the season so far, having recorded four consecutive league wins, as well as somewhat atoning for their sorry showing in the first leg of their Champions League tie against Milan by almost levelling the aggregate score at the Emirates. Still, they’ve lost as many as they’ve won on the road and remain a very beatable team.

The biggest threat to Everton’s chances is obviously striker Robin van Persie, who has scored and incredible 26 goals in 26 league games so far in this campaign. The Dutchman appears to have passed on his customary season-ruining injury and has only gone and proven himself as one of the world’s best forwards. Hopefully John Heitinga, who should retain his place at centre back for the foreseeable future after the derby debacle, will be able to keep his international teammate quiet.

While van Persie is far and away Arsenal’s best player, there are still others for the Blues to be concerned with. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is a massive talent, Aaron Ramsey, Mikel Arteta and the resurgent Tomas Rosicky move the ball around well in midfield, and Alex Song is as good a centre midfielder as any around at the moment. Arteta will probably get a great reception on his first appearance at Goodison since his £10m summer transfer (and rightfully so), but expect the mood to change after he  plays dead to get Marouane Fellaini a booking.

Arsene Wenger will likely name a first choice back five which has yet to lose a game when played together, so it’s important that Everton don’t leave Nikica Jelavic isolated up front - van Persie’s form means it’ll probably take two or more goals to win this one.

Jack Rodwell, Seamus Coleman and Darron Gibson are all expected to miss the game through injury, so I imagine Phil Neville will shift into midfield to partner Fellaini, with either Leon Osman or Tim Cahill supporting Jelavic in attack. Moyes will also have to make a decision on who will replace Coleman on the right of midfield; though Royston Drenthe is the obvious choice I wouldn’t be surprised to see Osman moved out wide instead.

I hope Drenthe does play as Everton are unlikely to dominate possession and will need to make the most of opportunities to counter-attack. Wenger has handed Moyes some of his most depressing defeats as Everton manager but the players have shown they can beat any English team at home and should believe they can collect three points that could move them into eighth.

Likely starting XI: Howard; Hibbert, Heitinga, Distin, Baines; Osman, Fellaini, Neville, Pienaar, Cahill; Jelavic