Everton’s upturn under Sam Allardyce continued with a 3-1 win over Swansea City.

In a dour first half of football, the Blues found themselves behind to the Premier League’s bottom side when Leroy Fer tapped in unchallenged at the back post.

However, they would be level at the break when Dominic Calvert-Lewin tapped home following Wayne Rooney’s missed penalty.

Gylfi Sigurdsson would come back to haunt his side in the second half when he curled in a superb effort from the edge of the box to hand the Blues the lead.

Rooney then converted from a second spot kick following a foul on Jonjoe Kenny to secure all three points for the Toffees.

Here were the key talking points from Goodison Park:

Consistency nearly costs Blues dear

 

Sam Allardyce has been keen to bring a sense of consistency to Everton since his appointment.

That has been noticeable in his selections, with the Blues’ back four remaining the same throughout and only minimal changes being made to the rest of the team.

He named an unchanged line up from the trip to Newcastle United but while has been a strength so far it almost proved to be his downfall this time around.

From the off, Everton appeared sluggish with the more senior pros, notably Wayne Rooney, offering far from their best for much of the game.

Fortunately it didn’t end up costing on this occasion as Gylfi Sigurdsson’s superb strike helped his side on their way to all three points.

With the games continuing to come thick and fast, though, adopting a more rotational policy would be in both Allardyce’s and Everton’s favour.

Goal scoring no longer an issue

 

Ask most fan what was Everton’s failure in the transfer window and they’ll tell you it was not signing a replacement for Romelu Lukaku.

Indeed, the rumour mill is already whirring and linking the Blues with a number of strikers in the January transfer window.

Goal scoring is not an issue for this team, though. Despite their obvious deficiencies, they have now scored more goals than they had at this stage last season.

Indeed this was the tenth successive game the host have scored in in all competitions. That’s their best run since a 15 game sequence in the 2015/16 season.

Whatever the general consensus may be, goals is not an issue for this side.

DCL continues to impress

 

If there’s one reason that Everton’s failure to replace Lukaku hasn’t haunted them quite as much as many predicted it would, it’s the continued growth of Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

The youngster was thrown into the deep end this season but the pressure has only helped to turn him into a diamond.

The 20-year-old now has now been in involved in 11 goals for Everton in all competitions this season. Only Wayne Rooney on 14 has more to his name.

Those are impressive numbers by any reckoning and with time on his side, the striker could turn into something special.

Finding a new forward in January may not be as vital as it once appeared.

Allardyce falls on a familiar pitfall

 

The visit of bottom placed Swansea City provided Allardyce with an opportunity to loosen the shackles and show his Everton team won’t be a solely defensive one.

It was baffling, then, that he elected to name an unchanged line up and keep Morgan Schneiderlin and Idrissa Gueye as his central midfield pairing.

While Gueye and Schneiderlin are both talented players in their own right, it is yet to be proven that they are effective as a pair.

Starting them together is often to the detriment of Everton, especially in an attacking sense.

That was noticeable throughout the first half as their safety first approach limited their team and frustrated the crowd.

Picking both together on a consistent basis is a pitfall that Allardyce cannot afford to fall down as Ronald Koeman did.