Kevin's injury is said to be a medial ligament injury and they normally take 4-6 weeks to heal. it's a bummer but it could have been a lot worse. think of it this way: we'll have Nasri, Kompany and de Bruyne coming back to full fitness at the same time so if we're within three points of the summit come the end of March it could really spur us on. here's hoping.
as for the game itself, I thought we were awful in the first half and we were lucky to get that chance we scored when we did. Everton were a constant threat on the break even though we had three in midfield and nothing we tried seemed to have much fluidity or class to it. but we got some good fortune with the goal - full marks to Fernandinho for taking the initiative to bomb forward and get on the end of a deflection - and were unlucky maybe not to go in at half time with a lead after Serge hit the post.
the biggest swing came in a twenty minute spell after half-time, though, and we took full advantage: Caballero saved a crucial 1-on-1 with Deulofeu, Martinez then made a bizarre change by taking him off which meant Clichy and Sterling had absolutely nothing to think about, and then we sent on de Bruyne who popped up to score the second goal. yep, the ball was over the byline but we've been denied two blatant penalties against Everton this month so it was about time we had some good fortune of our own.
from there we went about our business fairly comfortably. i can't remember Caballero having to make a save after we scored the third goal. obviously there are some serious negatives - one of which is Otamendi's troubling thirst to make rash challenges high up the pitch - but we're finally back at Wembley in a cup final and, crucially, we were resilient when it mattered (as we were against West Ham). i don't really like Pellegrini's style anymore but i'm enjoying his new "throw everyone forward" approach when we're not winning - that bodes well for the rest of the season. our form since the defeat at Arsenal is P9 W5 D3 L1, F18 A7 which is much, much better than our record pre-christmas.
we're not convincing by any stretch but it's coming together... slowly... i hope?
