SIGGY STUBS OUT SWANSEA HOPES

Wonder-goal from Everton ace gives old club the shivers

FOR those who mocked his price tag, Gylfi Sigurdsson had the perfect answer last night.

His goal to win this game and warm the Goodison faithful amid a freezing Mersey mist, was a thing of beauty.

That is what £45million gets you

– that touch of imagination and class, the difference between the few

Premier League teams with European aspirations and the rest.

Swansea matched Everton for much of the contest and were ahead when Leroy Fer poked home a corner.

Yet one sublime pass from Wayne Rooney which led to the equaliser on the stroke of half time, and one wonderful finish from former Swans player Sigurdsson with the game beautifully poised tipped it fatally against the visitors. There was a third goal when Rooney kept his nerve to score from the spot having had an earlier penalty saved, even if the award was incorrect, with Jonjo Kenny tripped outside the box by Martin Olsson.

Yet it was Sigurdsson who was the difference. The irony of that will not be lost on Swans boss Paul Clement, who was forced to sell his star player in the summer and has so far been unable to reinvest the money that brought in. Sigurdsson had struggled badly in his early games at Goodison, but has looked increasingly revitalised under Sam Allardyce (above), and his goal showed just why Everton paid a club record fee for him.

He took a pass from Rooney out on the right, jinked inside to move gracefully away from Kyle Naughton and unleashed an unstoppable curling beauty.

It may be obscene money, but sides are so organised these days and there are few differences defensively between them, players with that touch of magic the Iceland star displayed make the difference.

City had scored only twice in November and December, both coming from Wilfried Bony.

So when the striker tweaked a muscle inside the first 60 seconds, and was substituted before five minutes had passed, it appeared the visitors would struggle against a much improved Everton.

Yet perhaps that lack of an obvious goal threat made them complacent because Everton’s defensive woes made a baffling return.

They had conceded once in their previous five games, City had only nine league goals all season. Not many would have bet on the hosts going behind.

Yet that is what happened. Alfie Mawson’s leap for Tom Carroll’s corner distracted the home defence, and the ball went straight through for Fer to tap in on 35 minutes.

That was just about the first real action of a half where the number of thrills had been as low as the temperature.

Matters heated up when Rooney’s reverse pass sent Aaron Lennon into the box and he was felled by Roque Mesa’s clumsy challenge. Rooney’s penalty was brilliantly turned on to a post by Lukasz Fabianski, but Dominic Calvert-lewin reacted fastest to fire home the rebound.