When the season was new and held out such promise, Paul Clement was sanguine about the loss of Gylfi Sigurdsson to Everton and how there would be a new way ahead without him. This was the occasion when he discovered the challenge of making good on a declaration like that.
The Swansea manager cut a desolate figure last night as he admitted that he is back in the same predicament he faced when he took over as Swansea manager nearly 12 months ago, when the team had the same 12-point tally they hold today.
‘Yes, it’s a difficult job being a manager,’ he said. ‘It’s something I’m a bit unused to in my career. I was used to losing one in ten but winning nine. Now it’s the opposite.’
Wayne Rooney made amends for his earlier miss by smashing his second penalty of the night home for a 3-1 lead
Moments earlier Gylfi Sigurdsson had cut inside to curl home a sublime effort against his former club to put Everton ahead
Kyle Naughton slid in with a last-ditch effort to stop the Icelandic ace’s effort, but Sigurdsson’s shot simply whistled through
Sigurdsson was mobbed by Tom Davies and Aaron Lennon after picking out the top corner and giving the Toffees the lead
Wayne Rooney stepped up to take a penalty kick won by Aaron Lennon, but thundered his effort against the Swansea post
Dominic Calvert-Lewin reacted quickest to the rebound ahead of the Swans defenders and picked out the bottom corner
The youngsters headed straight to the corner in celebration after levelling the scores with the final kick of the first half
The sale of Sigurdsson and Fernando Llorente to Tottenham so late this summer, affording him no time to make adequate plans for a season without them, looks more like folly with each passing week.
Clement foresaw the purchase of Wilfried Bony from Manchester City as a move which would deliver the goals, though the player looked like an individual who wanted to be elsewhere when he departed after four minutes with a hamstring pull.
‘Very strange,’ Clement said. ‘I don’t now what action he would do to sustain that injury. Very strange.’
His Swansea side were actually looking confident of extracting a point and some encouragement from a night of attrition when the Icelander stepped and delivered them deeper into trouble, four points adrift at the foot of the table and appointments with Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur ahead.
His five touches navigated the ball into comfortable striking distance before he unfurled a shot way beyond the reach of his old teammate Lukasz Fabianksi. It will mean nothing to Swansea today that the man they sold for £40m chose not to celebrate. They’d worked on a threat like that but when it came they were powerless.
Calvert-Lewin roared in jubilation in front of the home supporters after pulling the Toffees back into the contest
Calvert-Lewin carried on his strong run of form which has seen him feature as a pivotal figure in the Everton front line
Earlier, Leroy Fer found space in the Everton box as a corner came in and was able to connect with the ball and volley home
Fer timed his jump to make the volley while keeping his body over the ball to break the deadlock at Goodison Park
Fer wheeled away in celebration with team-mate Tammy Abraham hot on his tail following the opening goal
Fer headed over to celebrate with his under-fire manager Paul Clement in the Swansea technical area
A disappointed Everton crowd watch on as Fer and Abraham celebrate with onrushing team-mates after the goal
Everton are not the finished article either, even though the bizarre mathematics of the Premier League see them just six points off seventh placed Spurs today. ‘There was a little bit of negativity,’ Allardyce said. ‘We passed ten balls we passed back to our goalkeeper instead of being brave enough to get our head up.’
His players actually began brightly, with Wayne Rooney dropping deep for possession and providing the architecture, while Aaron Lennon looked the biggest attacking threat. Idrissa Gana Gueye, another key part of an Allardyce machine built on solidity, drove forwarded and distributed well and there were half chances in the first half hour.
Rooney lifted Cuco Martina’s clipped ball from the left over the bar with his right outstep. Lennon nutmegged Alfie Mawson and drove a shot a foot wide of Lukasz Fabianksi’s left post.
But the overwhelming impression left by the first period was Swansea’s steadfastness, organisation and refusal to yield to the kind of panic which a predicament like theirs can create. Clement’s players were solid in defence and had begun shipping the ball around threateningly before they went ahead.
Everton became disconnected, with the vast space between their lines leaving Rooney, Lennon and Sigurdsson isolated. The visiting side’s lead came on 35 minutes when a high in-swinging corner from Tom Carroll was allowed to bounce in the six-yard box where Leroy Fer despatched it past Jordan Pickford. The numbers told the story.
Mason Holgate pulls his shirt above his head after receiving a yellow card from referee Jonathan Moss during the match
Tom Carroll loops a free-kick over the Everton wall as the south Wales side go on the attack at Goodison
Rooney goes close in the opening stages, rising above Federico Fernandez but failing to make the breakthrough
The Swans huddle together prior to kick-off, delivering last minute team instructions ahead of the must-win fixture
Fer’s goal took Swansea’s tally to ten for the season – one more than Rooney’s tally for his first campaign back at Goodison. But so did the reactions. Clement’s players ran towards the bench in celebration. They look like a collective.
They could not hold onto their advantage, though. On the stroke of half-time, Allardyce’s players were level. Poor defending allowed Rooney to play clever pass around the corner for Lennon, who ventured into the right hand side of the box where a marginal push from Roque Mesa sent him down for a justifiable penalty.
Rooney’s right foot penalty was pushed onto the post by Fabianski but Dominic Calvert- Lewin followed up to drive home an equaliser.
The struggle to gain an advantage against the league’s bottom side is not what Everton had anticipated here when Sigurdsson arrived amid such fervour this summer and it felt like a morgue as they laboured. The rescue act is under way but the next challenge is to bring some of the electricity expected in the so-called School of Science.
Sigurdsson drove around the outside of the Swansea box and struck a tame shot at Fabianksi before Allardyce brought Tom Davies into the fray on the hour mark in his search for more creativity.
The rain and swirling mist made for testing conditions as kick-off approached at the home of Everton
Goodison Park was lit up and ready for action as the two sides prepared for Monday night football under the lights
But then came the Sirgurdsson strike. And within nine minutes of it, Clement’s misery was complete, when Jonjoe Kenny went down outside the area under a challenge of minimal contact from Martin Olsson and yet was awarded a penalty. Wayne Rooney made no mistake as drove another nail into the visiting side. Clement was too desperate to complain about the decision last night.
The second Everton penalty of the night which Rooney, having missed the first, made no mistake about – driving it high to the goalkeeper’s right.
Swansea continued to drive at Everton. Kenny was booked for a poor challenge as substitute Jordan Ayew raced through the Everton midfield.
But Clement needs a goal-scoring threat before his side sink without trace and the pain of watching Sigurdsson score becomes a mere incidental detail.