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Five Things We Learned From Everton

The Swans stepped up their performance against Everton at the Liberty yesterday and earned themselves a good point against another side that has started the season well, but what did we learn from the game?

1. Ashley Williams - best centre back in the Premier League?


Ash really is a colossus at the heart of our defence. He has a never say die attitude and just picks himself up every week and performs at the very top of his game. There are many that say he doesn't get the full credit that he deserves and they are right, quite simply he is one of the best Swansea City players ever and he doesn't have many equals at this level

2. Modou Barrow coming back is a good call


Barrow showed enough in his short time on the pitch yesterday to suggest that he has a job to do for us this season. With Barrow on one flank and Montero on the other then there are headaches aplenty for full backs in the Premier League. I think Monk may be right in that he could offer more than Dyer and the more options we have the better.

3. We would have lost that game two years ago


Garry Monk has instilled a good self belief into this team and we all fight for the cause. I firmly believe had this game happened under either Brendan or Michael Laudrup then we would have lost it. Everton put the pressure on in the second half but we defended well as a unit and we deserved the point that we got.

4. Consistency in referees never happens


When John Stones went down under a fair challenge in the first half he held his leg and the referee immediately stopped play and allowed him to get treatment. When Kyle Naughton went down in the second half holding his head the referee allowed play to go on around him. All fans ever ask for is consistency and you see two incidents like this that highlight it isn't there.

5. Gylfi...again


Gylfi Sigurdsson is one of my favourite Swansea players but, as we said last week, it just isn't happening for him at the moment and I am not really sure why. Class is permanent and he has class so it doesn't worry me that he is off form but I do wonder if next week at Southampton we bring Ki back in and push Jonjo up to see if we can get Gylfi back to form. I may even be tempted to play him against Hull in midweek to see if that can help.

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