Guidolin's delight at "dream" start
24th January
Francesco Guidolin enjoyed a "dream" start to his tenure as Swansea City head coach after his side ran out 2-1 winners at Everton.
The Swans secured their first-ever Premier League victory over Everton, courtesy of first-half goals from Gylfi Sigurdsson and Andre Ayew.
Sigurdsson opened the scoring from the penalty spot in the 16th minute after Ayew was fouled inside the box, before an unfortunate Jack Cork own goal put the hosts back on terms midway through the first half.
But the Swans restored their advantage in the 34th minute when Ayew struck home his eighth goal of the season via a deflection off John Stones.
Guidolin's side were made to withstand heavy pressure in the second half as Lukasz Fabianski was called into action to deny a Romelu Lukaku header while Seamus Coleman missed an open goal with what was the final kick of the game.
"I am very happy because this is my first match," said Guidolin. "It's been my dream to work in the Premier League, but I didn't dream we would win my first match like this.
"I think we played very, very well for the first 60 minutes. Everton are a strong team and we suffered towards the end.
"My team is a good team. It is still early because I have only worked with them for a week, but I like that we play football on the floor and keep possession.
"If possible, I want us to be able to go forward when there is the possibility, and we will work towards this.
"We played well against Watford on Monday night. In the week we worked together and I told them my philosophy - how we must work and help each other.
"Six points in two matches is very important for us, but we hope that we can climb further up the table because we're still not in a good position."
Meanwhile, Everton boss Roberto Martinez admitted his disappointment in his side's performance but felt that they created enough chances to win the game.
"We were very slow in our performance and very pedestrian," said Martinez. "We weren't lucky with the decisions either, but it wasn't because of that.
"Seamus Coleman's chance at the end summed up our game. We had plenty of chances to win the game, let alone draw it.
"We didn't look like we enjoyed the game in the first half and we lacked a lot of intensity."
