Nick Ware

Thu 11 February 2021 17:27, UK

For much of his Everton career Gylfi Sigurdsson has flitted between hero and villain but his FA Cup heroics v Tottenham certainly placed him in the former category.

With the Blues shorn of their most creative talent in James Rodriguez, who was ruled out of the Goodison Park contest through injury, there was extra emphasis placed upon the shoulders of the Icelandic midfielder to plot a way past Jose Mourinho and co.

Boy, did he deliver.

For a start, the 32-year-old completed the whole match which spanned 132 minutes and did not look like running out of gas as he powered the Blues with a match-winning performance.

He directly contributed to four of the five Everton goals (one goal, three assists) as he showed there’s still life in the ‘old’ dog yet, with his assist for Bernard’s extra-time winner the highlight as he gift-wrapped a beauty of a ball into the Brazilian’s path.

The penalty he scored was classic Gylfi – the ball nonchalantly passed into the corner with consummate ease.

Sigurdsson’s supreme talents on the ball were there for all to see on Wednesday.

If his three assists were not enough then take a look at the other impressive statistics.

According to Wyscout, he completed 35 out of 38 passes attempted to record a brilliant 92% success.

The best thing about this was that these were not all safe passes that were focused on just keeping possession, instead Sigurdsson set about ensuring Everton were always on the front foot and looking to get in behind the Spurs defence.

He completed 13 forward passes to record an 87% accuracy, a pretty substantial increase on his 74% average this season.

Before Wednesday he had made just four passes into the penalty area in his last 12 appearances of which 10 of these were starts, but he doubled this in just one match (and a half) v Spurs.

Another statistic he smashed was his through balls – Sigurdsson had completed just three in the whole season but matches this in the 5-4 thriller.

It is no surprise to see he more than doubled his xA average for this season (0.27) after recording a figure of 0.60, with Everton scoring from three of his four shot assists.

Remarkably he had contributed just four assists prior to the Spurs fixture before adding three in a single game.

He also recorded his highest offensive duel success (60%) since December 16 (v Leicester City) to out-perform his 37.5% season average while completing 75% of his eight attempted dribbles, showing he had more than just final output in his game v Spurs.

That has been one of the criticisms levelled at Sigurdsson, that he is not dynamic enough to be a Premier League midfielder in this day and age.

However he showed a high level of adaptability in his game last night, and at Goodison News we would argue his brilliant display was as a result of being played in his correct position.

Sigurdsson is not a deep-lying midfielder and in reality, never will be at the elite level but he is among the most gifted around when it comes to impacting games in and around the penalty area with his penchant of sniffing out opportunities that do not even appear to be there.

His goal against Leeds United on February 3 was classic Sigurdsson as he arrived late into the box tucked home for the opener and he is wasted when Ancelotti opts to play him in a midfield pair or trio, as exemplified against Newcastle United on January 30.

Too often in his Goodison Park career Sigurdsson has appeared passive and motionless in possession.

It was the complete opposite last night and that is exactly what we want to see more of going forwards.

Of course the Blues hierarchy should be looking to improve star quality at the club going into next season and Sigurdsson could find himself a casualty of this with a focus on younger, hungrier players coming into the club.

But if he can replicate the sort of form he showed on Wednesday then there is every chance that Sigurdsson can prolong his Blues career and prove his worth for a few more years yet.

In other Everton news, Duncan Ferguson offers injury update on key Blues ace.