Total domination, but a red card instead of goals

ps: Any idea if we’re gonna appeal Mirallas’s red card?

Disappointed that Mirallas will not feature now...

Browning & especially Galloway were very very encouraging.

Ross Barkley was busier for almost 90 mins than I can recall so far, I loved his input today. If I was disappointed by the scoreline then I was more than delighted by Barks input because he can do that frequently.

Deulofeu tackling, winning and starting play at right back ? Good lad Geri !!!

Stones, well obviously money can't buy that class.

Feels like a loss given the dominance and number of chances. RM has to be bold when his forwards are misfiring and make the changes earlier.

Oh well... a lot of positives from the performance and so onto Reading and no fuck-ups.

I can’t believe Deulofeu stayed on the bench so long and Lennon never left it!

We need a mini clear-out in January; Lukaku, Mirallas, Osman, Gibson, Barry would be on my list. Other than that, we have quite a vibrant, enthusiastic squad; I can’t help but feel we’re being held back by certain individuals.

I could be wrong but I can't see on what grounds that card could be appealed, other than referee inconsistency. What I mean is that we've seen the same foul go unpunished already this season.

But Attwell I thought handled the game well, especially with Swansea baiting him at every opportunity. I don't recall us having him before.

I believe one of Charlie Austin or Jordan Rhodes even would have stuck away one of those chances today, we need a "fox in the box ".

Too often Rom just doesn’t do it.

A solid result that today though tinged with a silly red card for Mirallas whose season just hasn’t got going and now he won’t feature until the end of October, missing the Liverpool game.

It's time Martinez started giving Deulofeu longer minutes also.

If Rom and Kone had measured up to the guys behind them, we'd be celebrating a comfortable win.

We know he can do it at Premier League level; that said I’d quite like to see Rhodes given a chance at this level too, who thought the likes of Vardy would prove a competent forward ?

You need to give guys a chance, I just think with Rom you don’t get enough for £28 million, you get bits and pieces but nowhere near enough.

Maybe it is time to take Lukaku out of the firing line. Trust in Kone and Naismith to do the business against Reading. Keep Lukaku fresh for the Liverpool game. He can on his day destroy a defense. Or he can stink the place out. Keep him for Liverpool. He is due a performance. Let's tear them apart.

Negatives: Lukaku, and the failure to bring in a first team striker, I hope Rodriguez gets at least some time at Reading.

Mirallas, a prick with ears. How on Earth didn’t we win that .....?

Key is, and has been Martinez's Achilles heel, is winning games when the opposition just sit back.

Yeah, we do need to sharpen up up front but for me that’s over critical when objective number one must be to avoid conceding.

I'm personally delighted with the way things are shaping up this season. Keep it going on Tuesday, lads.

See ya there!

Now, it's a shoulder shrug and a look at who else is available.

Undoubtedly, we are strengthening with judicious buys and we are also definitely bringing through a top-quality crop of youngsters.

This will have a huge knock-on effect for kids wanting to join, or if we are in for promising youngsters from other teams, as they will know that if they are good enough, work hard and listen, they will get their chance.

The whole team played above expectations although like others I am yet to be convinced by Lukaku.

To be fair, he is not normally so errant in front of goal but he is never on his toes and stands around a lot. People complain about Naismith's control and touch but Lukaku is much worse in my opinion.

Also, I can't understand bringing Mirallas on in injury time, especially for Ross, who was having his best game in an Everton shirt and was the likely source of a goal.

Stand-out players for me today were:- Galloway, Stones, Barkley, Barry & Browning did well on the whole, apart from one or two times when Montero did get free of him in the latter part of the game.

We played well overall, an encouraging performance, but the chances missed and the subsequent 0-0 draw make it feel like a loss!

As for the red card, I was one of those that thought it was a tad harsh, these replays always make these challenges look worse than what they are. I think a yellow was deserved, he did catch him late with his studs, but I don’t believe he went in to injure him, he got his challenge all wrong. You have to remember he had just come onto the pitch and was still feeling his way into the pace of the game. I am not surprised a red was given though, because 9/10 if these challenges are spotted by the officials, a red will be shown.

Bring on Reading!!

I don’t know what game you were watching, as Browning was superb against their most effective player this season, Montero. Delighted to see Barkley running the show.

Lukaku’s first touch shocking, himself and Kone should have found the net, but I would have taken a point prior to kick-off.

The only negativity was that Roberto should have changed it earlier.

We had three wingers on the bench in a game where Swansea were oddly poor and he doesn’t start with any of them or even introduce one at half time. We’ll probably buy another in January.

Most of us would have taken a point before the game but we could have won that by 3 or more and so it feels like 2 points lost.

Kone was useless and so was Naismith. You could tell after 30 minutes it was one of Naismith's poor days... so too Kone. Way to narrow most of the time and pathetic finishing cost us badly. More width required.

Great showings from the Goodison Young Guns but overall a chance missed to beat an average Swansea team and chance missed to get in to the top 4. As usual, we beat one of the League's big teams then follow up with a shit result against a minnow... 6/10 performance today; not good enough.

That was disappointing all around. Poor finishing, terrible game management with Martinez keeping wingers on the bench and sticking with Kone, again, and Naismith the entire match. Nowhere near pleased or satisfied with a 0-0 result there.

I thought it was a really good performance but we need Geri on the right, give the guy a good run.

It looks like we are building a high quality defence and that Barkley is getting back to his best. Good enough to be going on with.

But, given the way the defence played, how well Barkley played without being as good as Chelsea or Saints, and the solid contributions of Naismith and Deulofeu, I am still gutted we didn’t take all three points and move up the table.

That was a nasty, impetuous challenge that could have really hurt someone if they're caught wrongly, and if I was his opponent, I'd be looking to hurt him myself before he hurts me or one of my team mates. cf. Lennon, Deulofeu, even Naismith who puts a foot in and gets in people's faces, but is not consistently nasty like Mirallas.

If a player did that against us we would rightly be up in arms. We need to move Mirallas on, preferably in January, and stop thinking we need him, because barring 45 minutes against Liverpool and some admittedly fine goals, he's a selfish liability, and a walking card machine every time he plays.

Martinez has a responsibility to do what is best for Everton Football Club, not harbour grudges, Don’t blame Mirallas for treating him with the same contempt.

And we were not creating chances all over the place, their keeper did practically nothing all day. Kone was anonymous. The "chances" really didn't start until Deulofeu came on, and even then we still were extremely narrow.

It’s going to be a really hard league for us this season, so a point away at Swansea is not one to be sniffed at.

So yes, we played 3 kids with a total of 58 first team appearances between them in defence - 48 (!) of those appearances are for Stones. So 10 appearances TOTAL for Browning and Galloway before today.

Maybe Stones isn't such a "kid" any more, given his talent and experience, but the other two surely are ... and they did really well, especially Browning against Montero who only had a couple of sniffs all game after looking so dominant in previous games. We seem to have at least 5 very solid English defenders, perhaps 6 with Pennington if he also breaks through. Something to be pleased about.

I agree that playing Naismith and Kone makes the pitch too narrow and personally I would have had a winger out from the start.

A very very rich man now!

You can say that again ;-)

Happy with a point, should have been 3, all-in-all very encouraging.

Let’s continue the progress against Reading.

They’re not a bad side, have some good players, so let’s pay them enough respect and no not underestimate them. I’d love a cup this year.

We had 3 lads 21 years old or younger In our back 4. Stones might not be a kid but he is still a young lad playing with 2 younger lads. I’d say they did a great job keeping a clean sheet. Maybe you just like your usual grumble. I’m sure you wrote on here the other day that you weren’t a moaner. Ha ha!

We aren’t clinical enough and we’re paying by dropping points against smaller sides like Watford and Swansea. We have to win against West Brom next Monday; anything other than the 3 points is quite frankly unacceptable.

We should have beaten Watford, Spurs were there for the taking, we should have won today. We should be on 13 points at least now.

Barkley was outstanding again. Stones... well, you can see why Chelski want him. In fact, everyone put a shift in. I still think Browning has a lot to learn; he got caught out a few times.

I think Martinez made the wrong decision: he should've taking Rom off and left Kone on. That was a bad tackle on Stones and not even a free-kick but I'm happy so far with the start of the season.

I'll just leave it at this. Everton just had a 0-0 game against Swansea. That's not a good result for a club like Everton if our ambition is to get into the Champions League.

We all knew how tricky our start was and I for one am delighted at how we’re looking, not just now but longer term.

If you look at Joe Royle, by the time he was 21 years old he had played regularly for 5 seasons in the English First Division.

He was vastly experienced, but by most peoples reckoning of age, he was still a "kid".

John Stones, at 21, is at the start of his second full season in the English Premier League, he is more experienced than his contemporaries in our defence (other than Jags), but is still a "kid" in popular language terms.

As for the others, they are neither experienced enough nor old enough to be considered as anything else but "kids" in common parlance, so, I have to disagree.

By all common denominators, the mainstay of our defence at the moment is made up of "kids".

And Bloody Good Kids they are too!

Hindsight is wonderful, isn’t it?

Should’ve been 3-0.

Why does Martinez have beef with Mirallas, did he drop him from the squad?

Did we win 3-1 against Chelsea without him, was he coming back from injury?

Did he try give him minutes out of all subs bar Deulofeu in a very tight game? Did Mirallas let us and his manager down?

Ridiculous thing to say

Ross is looking good and Stones great. I agree with Hugh: a young team but a good young team.

Naismith and Kone off at 65 to get Del Boy, Mirallas, or Lennon (any combination of the three) on. This would have added width against a Swansea team that was used to playing narrow and would have created better chances and maybe a goal.

As for RM, you bring unblooded kids on at 89 minutes to get a taste of the game, not a veteran. Martinez got his subs and timing wrong again. Too bad it wasn’t a surprise to me. We keep carping about wanting a consistent team effort, but I want a consistent managerial one.

If we take an average 4 points off each team we will make the Champions League.

Great to see Barkley flowing again although his awareness could improve such that he doesn’t slow things down.

Lukaku was gash. Really wish we’d added a decent frontman in the window to apply pressure.

We were unlucky not to get 3 points but with wins versus Reading and WBA and we will be looking good!

Finally the manager brings on a frustrated player on with 1 minute to go plus added time... what a fucking insult.

At half-time, Kone and Lukaku should have been taken off. The arrogance of them seems obvious: they couldn’t be bothered.

I just don’t get it at all with Bobby, when it is blatantly obvious after an hour say, that the game has stalemate firmly etched into it. He will wait till three or four minutes from the end, and then bring his subs on.

How can anyone change a game in such a short time?

Defence, flawless.

Midfield, dominant.

Strikers, must shake their heads, they were well supplied and were in fine positions to each tuck one or more away.

Barkley! We got a diamond!

Three subs should be made by about 75/80 minutes with a clear plan of how their fresh legs are going to change the game, Martinez is turning into a conservative 'wait and see' manager in this regard, and it is frustrating.

Why bring Mirallas on for 2 minutes?

Roberto at least brought on Deulofeu with enough time left to have an impact, but perhaps Mirallas could have also been introduced to inflict the right sort of pain on the tiring Swansea defence, with 20 mins and not 2 mins to go!

As for him getting substituted? I could just see the opposition gaining confidence with him going off. He’s our main goal threat, like it or not, and WILL score goals. Yes, he’s got a bad first touch, so what, but he’ll end up top scorer and more of a goal threat than any other member of the squad.

The trouble with Rom though is that he has too many "off matches" and we don’t expect him to score in every game because we don’t always create chances for him but today he has no excuses, and for the money we paid for him I’ll bet Martinez is in there saying "come on Rom they need to go in more regularly".

For what it’s worth, I think he started the season looking quite lean and eager but he can’t have one good game in ten matches, it’s got to be far more consistent.

Martinez doesn’t make substitutions at all sometimes, and often doesn’t use all three. What can the player do whilst sitting on the bench? Unless you mean literally push him.

You mean that you don’t know or understand how players can influence their manager and training staff before they are sent on to the pitch then that’s one of the most innocent admissions I’ve ever seen.

Enjoy your learning process, I’m really envious. Football is an incredible game, immense history, politics, heroism but most of all a worldwide worship... such a journey you have ahead.

How many times has this man let the team and supporters down? I'm just thankful they didn't score from the resulting free-kick. Get rid asap; the man is a dickhead.

For me, Mirallas showed why he isn’t getting more game time. Not just today, but on several occasions in the past two years.

I can almost cope with arrogance of the likes of Ronaldo and Suarez, who regularly score goals at the highest level and pull their teams out of trouble. Mirallas’s self-importance is becoming tiresome. He needs to knuckle down and do his job, rather than go round kicking opponents and getting sent off. If he did that consistently, he may get that dream move he and his agent think he deserves.

My take on the game was that we controlled it, never looked like we'd concede, never mind lose. We created enough chances and spurned them. Nothing wrong with tactics that produce a solid defensive performance and chances.

The manager doesn't miss chances, but he does have responsibility for not bringing in another quality striker.

Slowly but surely, these young defensive players are making our future look bright. Some talent up front wouldn't go amiss though. I'm getting fed up with our mix of honest toilers and expensive, egotistical underachievers.

Am I frustrated & disappointed by our returns today ? YES, of course I am.

Could Mirallas have avoided getting a red card ? No question that he could (despite that uncaged animal of Chelsea wrestling, grappling and behaving like a complete twat in another game but only being awarded a token yellow when 2 reds would still have been short of correct).

I liked the way we played today, I didn’t like the scoreline, but should we play like that more often then I won’t have reason to grumble.

Particularly encouraging were the standout performances of our less senior players, namely Stones, Barkley, Galloway, Browning and McCarthy and in his brief introduction Deulofeu was very bright but also impressed in defence.

There's some crackers on here again, sell Lukaku, its Martinez's fault Mirallas got sent off, Kone is no good again, the managers substitutions are always poor!

Effing hell, some of your logic amazes me.

We have a few 'easier' games coming up and it's time now to go on a run and turn these draws into wins. There could yet be something exciting building this year...

More focus is put on the price tag which isn’t the lads fault so when he does miss a chance it’s ’he’s not worth £28 million’ etc. As long as he keeps getting the service, they’ll fly in! I see your point though, Jim.

9 points so far from six games in a difficult opening stretch. Some attractive football and tactical flexibility. Jags back to his best, Stones a pillar of strength, Galloway a revelation, Barry back to his best, Barks looking more assured and threatening, Coleman and Baines back to their old selves before injury, Macca quietly doing what he does best, Kone having arun of games where he’s showing his skills in ball control, retention an lay-off as well as defensive duties, strength in depth (Deulofeu, Lennon, Cleverley, Browning, probably Funes Mori & Rodriguez to anticipate, etc etc).

Ever the optimist, me.... I can’t wait for the RS game.

Despite the 3-goal burst from Naismith last week, it as a little hopeful to expect a good performance from him today but he always tries hard. Realistically, neither he nor Kone are top notch performers on a consistent level.

Having said all that, Lukaku is woeful at times and Martinez should have started Lennon in this match. Sadly he wasn’t even given a kick.

The one good thing is the defence is playing well even with the young lads at fullback. Three away games on the trot without a goal against is quite an achievement for the Blues.

As for the red card, if Kev hadn’t raised his foot, then hesitated, before clipping the Swansea player, it would’ve been a yellow at the worst. The fact he did it right in front of the linesman didn’t help either.

Although why he brought Mirallas on at that stage when he clearly did not want to come on, I don’t know. I think his foul was largely as a result of his attitude at that time.

Overall, I thought it was a very good performance by the team. I thought most of the team played well. My only disappointment was Rom whose finishing and hold-up play was poor. I think Kone was a lot better than some people are saying.

In terms of subs, I think it was all about balance. Deulofeu did very well but I don’t think that RM wanted to break up Naismith and Galloway (they combined well together, especially in the second half). So, he opted to give KM a go in a freer role for that one last chance. I expect that he would have played v Reading too.

I blame Martinez for not putting Mirallas on much earlier!!< 3 minutes is not enough time for a striker to get a scoring chance.

The longer I see Martinez wait with his subs, the more certain I am that Martinez will never get us into the Champions League.

Lukaku is overrated, and I want us to sell him while he still has some value.

A good assessment of the game and performances. I am not as optimistic as you, though, as Martinez still baffles me with his player selections. With due respect to everyone's opinions, I don’t really see the point in posters commenting on a game they have not seen. It just gives more credence to some of the distorted views of their Heroes and Villains complex.

I do think after yesterday we should consider if Lukaku’s 15 goals a season and fuck all else justifies him being in the team.

I’ve read it twenty-two times now and yes it definitely says this. Is it one of those coded hidden message things where the true meaning is buried behind some jumbling of letters?

Nope!

It is what it is: one of the most bizarre, unfair, warped, and quite frankly wrong things that I have read on these hallowed pages in, say, the last five years.

’I just don’t get it at all with Bobby, when it is blatantly obvious after an hour say, that the game has 'stalemate' firmly etched into it. He will wait till three or four minutes from the end, and then bring his subs on’.

Erm... Derek, check the timing of the first sub.

Paul (118) is correct. Deulofeu's sub was made at 65th minute. The game didn’t look like a stalemate to me – we were continuing to make chances but not putting them away.

And I read Paul Ferry’s comments to Mr Yensen at 117. And my only response is... Mr Yensen, what game were you watching?

Barkley busy doing his usual nothing? He BOSSED midfield! Kid was fantastic.

Matter of opinions? Yes. But occasionally I have to wonder what the hell were you watching?? Ross was fantastic today!

We played well and deserved 3 points. We didn’t finish and a draw feels like a loss.

End of. Roll on. We play like we did today for the rest of the season and we’ll be fine.

Some disagreed with me and that’s cool but I stand by my observation: the lad is class and showed it today.

Ross Barkley has assisted more goals in his last four Premier League games (3) than he had in his previous 77 appearances in the competition (2).

Ross Barkley has certainly improved his key contributions since the Watford match but with such a poor record (in supposedly his key area of application) prior to it, is it any wonder that many remain unconvinced on him being extraordinary... great contribution from him yesterday but he needs to do more to stabilize his range of performance quality (too many false dawns to date unfortunately).

Kevin had convinced himself he was moving on to a Champions League side, a club more suited to his standard.

The fact that he now can’t get in to the side has just made him sulk over his decision to stay.

I think Martinez and Mirallas are to blame for the fact he is still at Everton. Both of them got it wrong.

There are signs that we are turning into a formidable outfit. Browning and Galloway were excellent too. Now, if only we had a Gary Lineker type striker?

Strange situation here. It's as if Mirallas doesn't really want to be here and Martinez isn't desperately keen to play him. Looks to me like the contract extension was a good ruse to maximise his sales value.

I always watch the game several times, each time focusing a particular player. Rom is the most over-rated player I have seen.

No excuse for Kev, but he must get a bit frustrated being brought on for about 3 minutes like an afterthought.

Some good performances, though I do think we’re slowly getting it together... bit of a way to go yet. At least it’s an improvement on last season!

We need our young players to believe they can achieve great things with our club. We can beat anyone with our best. Who thinks Champions League is possible?

To suggest he wanted to get sent off is incredibly naive or is being suggested by those who already didn’t like him before the game started. For those of you who play the game, ask yourselves how long it takes you to get into the flow and speed of a game and then give Kevin the same amount of time since his manager didn’t.

The manager for sending on a player with everything to prove in a couple of minutes of injury time. For me that is just plain bad management by Martinez.

The player got himself sent off for an over-the-top challenge, and can have no excuses. It doesn’t matter if he meant it or miss timed it, the bottom line is he should know better.

If that type of challenge had been on one of our players and the offending player did not receive his marching orders, we would all be going mad.