Swansea V Everton - view commentary, squad, and statistics of the game live.Monk out to dent Everton revivalSwansea manager Garry Monk believes a strong finish will put a different slant on Everton's season - but he is determined to stop his former manager Roberto Martinez profiting at his old Liberty Stadium stomping ground on Saturday.Martinez was lauded by Everton fans last season as the club qualified for Europe with a fifth-placed finish in the Barclays Premier League.But the going has been a lot tougher for the Spaniard in his second season on Merseyside with Everton having only removed the spectre of relegation by winning their last three matches."I always say you're only a few games away from being great or rubbish," Monk said."Roberto is a good manager, but sometimes you have good periods and sometimes you have bad ones."It's just making sure you come through them and he's won the last three games, they're back on the up and he'll want to finish the season strongly."Of course they'd want to be pushing further up the league and it's not a position you'd associate with Everton."But if they can get back up to finish positively it will put a different twist on the season."Everton have had to balance their domestic commitments with a demanding Europa League campaign which saw them knocked out at the round-of-16 stage last month.And Monk knows from Swansea being in the competition last season how much that has an impact on Premier League performances and results."Europe is tough, the travelling and constant games in certain periods," Monk said."It all adds up and the intensity of the football at this level takes it out of you and takes its toll."Whether it (Everton's results) is all down to that I don't know, but it does play a major part and if you look at the teams who have played in the Europa League, including ourselves, it has had an impact."Martinez believes his side have learned valuable lessons this season, the most important being how to win when things are not going their way.Last weekend's 1-0 win over sixth-placed Southampton showed a resilience not always evident in the Spaniard's teams as, having taken an early lead, they managed to avoid any mishaps to secure a third successive Premier League victory.A year ago the Toffees were playing opponents off the pitch with their fluid passing style but it has been a different story this season as their domestic form suffered at the expense of a run to the last 16 of the Europa League.But things seem to have clicked into gear, almost aligned with their European exit, and while Martinez has not altered his approach - highlighted by this week's open training session at Goodison Park when all the drills were focused on short, sharp passing - the players appear to have become more streetwise."I wouldn't say things have changed muchIt is evident all of a sudden we have used the demands in Europe in a good manner."I thought we ended up being able to cope with that mental fatigue we have in Europe and playing in the league and we are a stronger team and we will learn through the experience."I do feel we are now a more mature side going into any game we are facing and I thought that showed as the performance against Newcastle was very different to the one we had to put in against QPR away from home and different again to the one at home to Southampton."The maturity in our game and understanding how to win matches comes after a really tough season in which we have learned our lessons and I do feel the group is becoming a lot stronger."The focus now is to get a real good momentum in the league - something we haven't been able to achieve this season."They head to eighth-placed Swansea on Saturday full of confidence but probably without leading goalscorer Romelu Lukaku, who is yet to recover from a hamstring injury which kept him out of the recent internationals as well as the win over Southampton
Source : PA
Source: PA