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Cardiff City 0 Everton 3 | Talking Points

Everton took a much needed three points on Tuesday night after a 0-3 victory over Cardiff, who sit just one point ahead of the relegation zone before Wednesday nights fixtures. 

In an uneventful first half, it was Everton who managed to break the deadlock. After some sloppy play on the ball, Cardiff handed possession to the Toffees and a surging run down the wing from Seamus Coleman saw him play a first time ball to Gylfi Sigurdsson who stroked the ball along the ground and neatly past Matthew Etheridge to take his goal tally to 10 this season. 

The second half was similar to the first half with neither sides looking threatening. However, out of the very few chances that came, it was Everton who doubled their lead with Sigurdsson doubling his tally for the evening. More slack passing from Cardiff saw the ball played out wide for Everton and a skillful run from substitute Bernard saw his cross pushed away from Etheridge but straight into the path of the Everton playmaker who lashed the ball with his left foot into the roof of the net. 

Everton stayed patient throughout the game and Cardiff failed to ever get into the fixture. To rub salt in the wounds, Idrissa Gueye’s nutmeg in the middle of the park was followed by a cutting pass that Dominic Calvert-Lewin ran onto and slotted home in stoppage time to make it 3-0. 

In an uneventful game, Everton took advantage of a poor Cardiff side and managed to slot three past Cardiff adding to the Bluebirds woes. With teams around them picking up points they remain just one point outside the relegation zone and two points off Brighton in 16th.

Gylfi Sigurdsson the record breaker

The Icelandic internationals first goal of the evening saw him break a record that he has had his eye on for some time. His 56 goals took him past Eidur Gudjohnsen as the highest scoring Premier League player from Iceland. His second then took him to 57. 

After passing a brilliant striker to achieve such a record he may have to be regarded as the best Premier League player from Iceland in the leagues’ history and one of his nations best ever products. 

He also leads the way for most assists, with 39, ahead of Gudjohnsen’s 28. In his 237 appearances, it means that he is involved in a goal every 2.5 games making him a constant threat in front of goal for any side that he plays for. 

A crucial win for Everton

In the last few weeks Everton have been consistently poor and with mid-table teams such as Leicester sacking their manager because of poor performances, Marco Silva will surely have been feeling the pressure. But, a win by such comfortable margins and a clean sheet will be greatly appreciated by the Portuguese. 

With the Merseyside derby coming up this weekend, Everton will be delighted with their win. With the potential to have a serious effect at the top of the table, they will receive the support from their fans that they desperately need as recent weeks have seen Silva and his players on the receiving end of criticism.

Having put to bed any worries about potentially being roped into the bottom half the table, Everton will now want to end their season chasing the top seven position they would have hoped to have secured by now. With Wolves also losing to Huddersfield, Everton can look to make up some ground on their opposition. 

Clinicalness an issue for the Bluebirds

Neil Warnock’s side failed to amount a single shot on target against Everton and were never really in the game. Cardiff matched Everton for physicality but when it came to adding the finishing touches to their attacks, Cardiff were not ruthless enough. 

With Omar Niasse unable to play against his parent club having started the last six, perhaps they were missing a cutting edge to their attack. Warnock will surely feel that this was a chance missed as they looked to get away from 18th place Southampton who face Fulham in a bottom of the table clash next. However, they may find themselves in the bottom three heading into this weekends fixtures. 

Cardiff had shown plenty of fight in recent fixtures beating Southampton and Bournemouth in February. In those two fixtures, they accumulated eight shots on target. However, the low goal-scoring side perhaps need to start creating more if they are to get the all-important goals that will keep them in the Premier League. 

Is Cardiff’s leaky defence the problem?

While a lack of goals is a problem for Warnock’s men, Cardiff have also conceded eight goals in their last two games. Whilst this is a major problem, it is the manner that they have conceded that could be an issue. 

Basic mistakes have been costing his side crucial points. The opening two goals against Everton came from sloppy passing that handed the ball to Marco Silva’s side and Cardiff failed to recover in time as Sigurdsson took full advantage of their mistakes. 

Everton only had four efforts on target and scored three of those shots. This shows that Cardiff mistakes are leading to clear cut chances for their opponents. Everton were not particularly impressive but still picked up an emphatic win and Cardiff need to be much harder to beat if they are going to survive the drop. 

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