This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/football/live/2015/apr/11/swansea-city-v-everton-premier-league-live
The article has changed 7 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| Swansea City v Everton: Premier League – live! | Swansea City v Everton: Premier League – live! |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| 12.59pm BST12:59 | |
| 13 mins: Routledge is back on the pitch and manages to win a free-kick. From it the ball is fed to Gomis with his back to goal, about 25 yards out, and he rolls Jagielka like a carpet before firing towards the top corner. However, Tim Howard is there to produce a save every bit as good as the turn and shot, pushing it wide for a corner. | |
| 12.56pm BST12:56 | |
| 10 mins: Ooof, that looks nasty. The ball drifts forwards towards Routledge, who gets up to flick the header on but a split second after he got there Jagielka arrives and smacks into the back of his bonce. Completely unintentional, but that will sting. Routledge comes off worse, receives some treatment and looks a little bit fuzzy, but he looks like he’s going to be OK. | |
| 12.55pm BST12:55 | |
| 9 mins: McCarthy dinks a smashing ball over the top looking for the run of Arouna Kone, and the striker just gets there before the ball runs out of play, placing his studs atop the ball to keep it in, but eventually the ball rolls out. | |
| 12.53pm BST12:53 | |
| 7 mins: Bafetimbi Gomis gets onto a pass from Rangel down the right of the penalty area, cuts inside Phil Jagielka leaving the centre-back sprawling on a well-watered deck, but Baines ghosts in to deny the big striker a shooting chance. Good job, too. | |
| 12.51pm BST12:51 | |
| 5 mins: Lennon flips the ball over Taylor looking for the run of Seamus Coleman, who is tracked by Jonjo Shelvey but the Swansea man barrels his quarry over with a shove to the back. Everyone glances towards the referee and half prepare to take their positions for the subsequent free-kick, but bafflingly the whistle is kept from Michael Oliver’s lips. Weird. | |
| 12.48pm BST12:48 | |
| 3 mins: Aaron Lennon skips down the right and tries to stick over a cross, but Neil Taylor is there to block and put it out for a corner. Leighton Baines swings said set-piece over, but Lukasz Fabianski claims with an assurance that has been pretty typical of the Pole this season. | |
| 12.46pm BST12:46 | |
| 1 min: And we’re away, in the South Wales sunshine. Ashley Williams gets things started with a maverick and errant pass across his backline, taxing Angel Rangel on the right flank but the full-back manages to keep it in. Is this a sign that the players are trying to make things interesting for us? Hopefully. | |
| 12.45pm BST12:45 | |
| Garry Monk and Roberto Martinez share a cool-guy handshake and a hug, and Swansea are about to kick-off. | |
| 12.41pm BST12:41 | |
| There’s an air raid klaxon played over the PA as the players line-up in the tunnel, which can only mean one thing. Yes, that’s right - we all take football far too seriously. Anyway, we’ll be underway soon. | |
| 12.35pm BST12:35 | |
| Well, there you go... | |
| 40 - Garry Monk has the best win rate of any Swansea manager in the Premier League (40%, Rodgers had 32%, Laudrup 27%). Dedicated. | |
| 12.30pm BST12:30 | |
| This is also a joy, by John Ashdown - The Joy of Six: songs about sportspeople, featuring the Super Furry Animals, Billy Bragg and a 13 minute Zimbabwean rhumba-pop tune documenting a 3-3 draw between the Tornados and the Dynamos. Another nomination - Mr Carbohydrate, by the Manic Street Preachers about former Glamorgan batsman Matthew Maynard. | |
| 12.10pm BST12:10 | 12.10pm BST12:10 |
| While we’re waiting for this one, how about a celebration of some happy couples? This gallery of sport stars’ weddings is a joy, particularly Donald Campbell and Tonia Bern shooting the breeze with Terry Thomas... | While we’re waiting for this one, how about a celebration of some happy couples? This gallery of sport stars’ weddings is a joy, particularly Donald Campbell and Tonia Bern shooting the breeze with Terry Thomas... |
| ...and Babe Ruth, full of the joy of his special day when marrying former stage star Claire Hodgson... | ...and Babe Ruth, full of the joy of his special day when marrying former stage star Claire Hodgson... |
| ...and Mark Hughes’s hair. | ...and Mark Hughes’s hair. |
| 11.48am BST11:48 | 11.48am BST11:48 |
| Team news | Team news |
| Swansea | Swansea |
| Fabianski; Rangel, Fernandez, Williams, Taylor; Cork, Ki; Shelvey, Sigurdsson, Routledge; Gomis. Subs: Tremmel, Amat, Britton, Emnes, Dyer, Grimes, Fulton. | Fabianski; Rangel, Fernandez, Williams, Taylor; Cork, Ki; Shelvey, Sigurdsson, Routledge; Gomis. Subs: Tremmel, Amat, Britton, Emnes, Dyer, Grimes, Fulton. |
| Everton | Everton |
| Howard; Coleman, Jagielka, Stones, Baines; Barry, McCarthy; Lennon, Barkley, Osman; Kone. Subs: Robles, Alcaraz, Garbutt, Besic, Pienaar, Naismith, Mirallas | Howard; Coleman, Jagielka, Stones, Baines; Barry, McCarthy; Lennon, Barkley, Osman; Kone. Subs: Robles, Alcaraz, Garbutt, Besic, Pienaar, Naismith, Mirallas |
| Referee: Michael Oliver (Ashington) | Referee: Michael Oliver (Ashington) |
| 11.40am BST11:40 | 11.40am BST11:40 |
| Preamble | Preamble |
| It’s that point in the season. The point where, if everyone’s really honest, they’d like to call it. Done. Everyone go home. We’ve all got a decent rest ahead of us in the summer so why not get it started now? Let’s stop kidding ourselves that a ‘strong end to the season’ or ‘finishing as high up the table as possible’ are real achievements. Neither Everton nor Swansea have anything to play for, so all of this - this playing out of the remaining games in the schedule, is essentially admin. It’s box-ticking, making sure that all is proper and taken care of, that the holy and established fixture list is respected and adhered to. | It’s that point in the season. The point where, if everyone’s really honest, they’d like to call it. Done. Everyone go home. We’ve all got a decent rest ahead of us in the summer so why not get it started now? Let’s stop kidding ourselves that a ‘strong end to the season’ or ‘finishing as high up the table as possible’ are real achievements. Neither Everton nor Swansea have anything to play for, so all of this - this playing out of the remaining games in the schedule, is essentially admin. It’s box-ticking, making sure that all is proper and taken care of, that the holy and established fixture list is respected and adhered to. |
| But still, there are appearance bonuses to be claimed, points to be won, goals and starts to be tallied up. And, of course, football to be played. For the other side of the long summer rest, aside from the Women’s World Cup, which we will actually be interested in, and some youth tournaments that we’ll pretend to be interested in, is no football. And that’s a disquieting thought. No football. Not that we really have much emotional investment in, anyway. And, on balance, Some Football is most clearly better than No Football. | But still, there are appearance bonuses to be claimed, points to be won, goals and starts to be tallied up. And, of course, football to be played. For the other side of the long summer rest, aside from the Women’s World Cup, which we will actually be interested in, and some youth tournaments that we’ll pretend to be interested in, is no football. And that’s a disquieting thought. No football. Not that we really have much emotional investment in, anyway. And, on balance, Some Football is most clearly better than No Football. |
| So, to Swansea and Everton. These are two clubs with managers whose reputations really don’t reflect their performances this season. Roberto Martinez is, despite a campaign that even his mother would struggle to call anything but ‘a colossal sigh of a season’, still enjoys plenty of kudos, brownie points and respect. He’s a good manager because he did a good job at Wigan under the circumstances, despite getting them relegated (although their subsequent travails after his departure might, oddly enough, be more of an indication of his quality than anything he did while there), and because people like some of the things he does, and people who have worked with him say he’s excellent. Which is all fair enough, but it doesn’t really explain why, the season after they bloody nearly doubled their transfer record, it’s all gone a bit wrong, and those concerns about Martinez being able to organise a defence have resurfaced, and so on and etc and so forth. | So, to Swansea and Everton. These are two clubs with managers whose reputations really don’t reflect their performances this season. Roberto Martinez is, despite a campaign that even his mother would struggle to call anything but ‘a colossal sigh of a season’, still enjoys plenty of kudos, brownie points and respect. He’s a good manager because he did a good job at Wigan under the circumstances, despite getting them relegated (although their subsequent travails after his departure might, oddly enough, be more of an indication of his quality than anything he did while there), and because people like some of the things he does, and people who have worked with him say he’s excellent. Which is all fair enough, but it doesn’t really explain why, the season after they bloody nearly doubled their transfer record, it’s all gone a bit wrong, and those concerns about Martinez being able to organise a defence have resurfaced, and so on and etc and so forth. |
| In the other dugout, Garry Monk. While he may slot firmly into the ‘Footballers Who Look Like Estate Agents XI’ (also Harry Kane, Alan Pardew - any and all nominations welcome), Monk has done a pretty splendid job at Swansea, despite losing his best striker to the great pit of transfer Sarlaac known as Manchester City. And, as an aside, last week’s win over Hull meant that Swansea’s record this season without the healthily-posteriored Ivory Coast striker is actually slightly better than with him. Huh. Imagine that. “I think it was a huge risk when you think about it,” said Monk this week, about his appointment, straight from the first team squad, to replace Michael Laudrup last year, and he’s right, but it’s paid off. Monk is in line to record a better finish than both Laudrup and Brendan Rodgers at the Liberty, which is quite the achievement. | In the other dugout, Garry Monk. While he may slot firmly into the ‘Footballers Who Look Like Estate Agents XI’ (also Harry Kane, Alan Pardew - any and all nominations welcome), Monk has done a pretty splendid job at Swansea, despite losing his best striker to the great pit of transfer Sarlaac known as Manchester City. And, as an aside, last week’s win over Hull meant that Swansea’s record this season without the healthily-posteriored Ivory Coast striker is actually slightly better than with him. Huh. Imagine that. “I think it was a huge risk when you think about it,” said Monk this week, about his appointment, straight from the first team squad, to replace Michael Laudrup last year, and he’s right, but it’s paid off. Monk is in line to record a better finish than both Laudrup and Brendan Rodgers at the Liberty, which is quite the achievement. |
| Which is not to say that all is rot at Everton while all is sunshine at Swansea. But the point stands. Two managers, not alike in reputation. One is better than t’other for sure, but which? Perhaps we shall find out today. | Which is not to say that all is rot at Everton while all is sunshine at Swansea. But the point stands. Two managers, not alike in reputation. One is better than t’other for sure, but which? Perhaps we shall find out today. |
| Kick-off: 12.45 BST | Kick-off: 12.45 BST |
| Updated at 11.44am BST | Updated at 11.44am BST |