Match Summary

A decent looking team took on the Swansea City at Goodison, with Jelavic and Anichebe coming close in the first half that saw the Blues pressing and probing with intent. They converted few clear chances, though, as the red shirted visitors constructed a brick-wall defence that, together with goalkeeper Vorm, denied Everton anything from the game — except for a very rare clean sheet.

Jelavic shot bounced narrowly wide after he look to connect well with Pienaar's excellent delivery.

Michu made a lovely strike to try an audacious lob from a narrow angle and Howard got a vital touch to send it onto the bar.

Then Coleman did really well to set up Fellaini whose first-time shot was straight at Vorm. Pienaar was lucky to win a good free-kick that Baines swung in but Osman headed it wide with the goal gaping.

A variant corner taken short produced a difficult chance for Jagielka, falling backwards to head it out at the far post. As Swansea attacked, Distin was solid to defend away after a good move down the Everton right just before the break.

Everton came out in determined fashion, Neville stealing the ball off Coleman's toe to fire in on Vorm. Everton continued to build good ground attacks intermixed with deep aerial balls for Fellaini to knock down but found it hard getting deep enough into the Swansea area, although Distin did have a good opportunity with a header that went over the bar, while the constant fear of a swift Swansea counter remained ever-present, Hernandez stinging Howard's gloves with one shot.

After one really good spell of build-up play Jelavic tried a bicycle kick but missed it completely. A big shout for a penalty when Jelavic bounced off Williams going for a difficult cross, but it was nothing. Michu was booked before Jelavic knocked down to Fellaini on the near post who couldn't get his feet to the ball before Williams cleverly kicked it away from him.

Moyes eventually decided to change things wthe introduction of Naismith in place of the dreadful Phil Neville as Everton attacks were continuously thwarted by the stalwart Swansea defence. This meant Fellaini playing a little deeper, and providing less of a target for high balls.

Pienaar caught De Guzman on his ankle, but escaped any punishment. A nice corner in from Baines was headed over by Jagielka when it looked easier to score.

Baines picked up a yellow card when Rangel illegally backed into him! He then got involved with Rangel, as Graham replaced Michiu. Moyes decided to bring on Vellios for Anichebe with less than 10 mins left.

Vorm was booked for presumably time-wasting after Fellaini powered in a header at the far post off a great Pienaar cross but the Belgian had pushed aside a defender to reach the ball.

Vellios created a golden chance for Jelavic near the end but he scooped it over instead of under the bar with an otherwise brilliant first-time shot as the game ended with 4 mins of added time.

Michael Kenrick

Match Preview

After starting the New Year away from Goodison Park with trips to the northeast and the southwest, Everton are back on Merseyside to face a Swansea City that is still trying to establish some rhythm under the management of Michael Laudrup but turned heads again in midweek when they took a commanding 2-0 lead in the League Cup semi-finals over Chelsea.

Michu may be grabbing headlines as arguably the signing of the season with his stunning goalscoring feats but the Swans have an open, exciting footballing side that is now unbeaten in six games since they lost narrowly at Tottenham in mid-December.

As Everton found out at the Liberty Stadium earlier this season, though, they have a propensity to concede goals and that has seen them fall off the pace a little in the race for European qualification via the Premier League placings. Swansea lie in ninth coming into this weekend, seven points behind the Blues.

For David Moyes, the task is a simple one — keep his team's impressive form, which has seen them win five of their last seven in all competitions, rolling through what is a favourable part of the fixture calendar.

With all the clubs chasing Manchester United betraying fallibility at various times in the season so far, any team that can put a run of victories together can make decent headway in the battle for the Champions League places and Moyes will be hoping that Everton can be that team between now and the trip to Old Trafford in a month's time.

As ever, he will be challenged by injuries and he will again be without the services of Darron Gibson in midfield and he will be monitoring the fitness of Leighton Baines after admitting that the Englland international has been playing with an ankle injury recently.

Tony Hibbert remains sidelined as he recovers from surgery on his calf but Seamus Coleman's impressive return action in the 5-1 thumping of Cheltenham last Monday will ease the manager's concerns at right back.

Assuming Baines is passed fit, Moyes is likely to field a similar team to the one that that started at Whaddon Road, though anxious Evertonian eyes will be scanning the squad for any sign of Kevin Mirallas who is believed to be nearing a return following his troublesome hamstring injury. If he is fit, it would not be surprising to see his manager ease him back in from the bench rather than pitch straight into the starting XI.

Being on home turf and mindful of the fact that they're unbeaten in all prior meetings with Swansea, Everton will be confident that they will have enough to take all three points from this one. Certainly, if they can repeat the performance with which they tore Laudrup's side apart back in August, they will have no problems.

^* Unfortunately, we cannot control other sites' content policies and therefore cannot guarantee that links to external reports will remain active.