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Half-time: Aston Villa 0-0 Everton
David Moyes heads down the touchline presumably pretty pleased with his team’s first-half display. Everton hit the post inside 12 seconds through Merlin Röhl and had the ball in the net later on after Jake O’Brien’s header was ruled out because Harrison Armstrong was offside. Morgan Rogers has had chances for Aston Villa, who lost John McGinn to injury.
45+2 min: O’Brien wins a free-kick near his own corner flag after receiving some close attention from Rogers.
45 min: Garner pulls the corner back to Mykolenko on the edge of the box but he scuffs the cross and it’s easily cleared. Three minutes added.
44 min: It’s been much better from Villa in the last few minutes but Everton are still finding space in the final third. Grealish cuts in on his right and hits a shot that deflects off Cash out for a corner.
Villa hit the bar!
42 min: Tielemans floats a cross to the back post and Guessand rises above Mykolenko connects with a looping header that bounces off the underside of the bar and away.
40 min: An unchallenged Grealish is allowed to make inroads into the Villa box and his cutback is cleared away after he got to the byline. O’Brien’s long throw bounces all the way through to Martínez.
38 min: That was sneaky from Rogers. After the corner was given, he went back to the dugout for a drink. Nobody tracked him as he jogged back to the edge of the box, the corner was played straight to him and his shot was dangerous.
36 min: Crucial block! Up the other end, Rogers tries to sweep home from close range and O’Brien sticks out a leg to deflect it out for a corner. Rogers then tries his luck from further out and it’s parried by a diving Pickford.
An offside Armstrong jumps for the ball in front of O’Brien, doesn’t get anything on it, but it’s disallowed nonetheless.
Everton goal disallowed!
34 min: Everton play the corner short, the ball goes into the box and O’Brien heads in! The flag goes up straight away for offside. It’s Armstrong who could be in an offside position as the ball comes in and VAR are examining whether he made an impact on the play. The decision is no goal.
33 min: A lovely spin from Röhl sets Everton away. Armstrong makes a run through the middle but the ball is fed out to Mykolenko, whose powerful strike from the edge of the area is batted over the bar by Martínez for a corner …
31 min: Chance for Villa! Tielemans threads an excellent ball into the path of Guessand in the Everton box but the forward can’t sort his feet out and his scuffed shot bobbles into Pickford’s grasp. A retreating Mykolenko made it difficult but that was a decent opening.
29 min: Everton win it back again after Torres is careless on the ball. Patterson chases a ball to the corner but Maatsen is strong and shields it out of play for a goal-kick without much fuss.
27 min: Tarkowski gifts the ball to Buendía in the Everton half and Villa enjoy a spell on the ball. Everton are, of course, well drilled and don’t yield much space. O’Brien picks up on a loose ball and sets his team on a counterattack. Grealish tries his luck from range but it’s blocked.
25 min: Unai Emery wears a look of worry in the Villa dugout. Everton have started to get joy in attacking areas since McGinn went off injured. Villa have barely threatened in the last 10 minutes or so.
23 min: McNeil goes into the book for pulling Buendía’s shirt after being turned in the Villa half.
22 min: Everton get another corner as Armstrong wins it in the Villa half and Barry’s cross is blocked. McNeil’s delivery finds Grealish at the back post but his volley bounces back off a bunch of bodies at the near post.
20 min: Cash misjudges a header to his goalkeeper at the back post and Everton are gifted a corner. Garner’s deep delivery is aimed at Tarkowski but Villa eventually clear. Patterson’s floated cross from the right is then easily plucked out of the sky by Martínez.
18 min: Villa are happy to keep the ball among themselves as Guessand gets ready. The Ivorian comes on to make his first appearance since returning from Afcon this week. McGinn goes down the tunnel.
16 min: McGinn is up but limping. Guessand is getting stripped on the touchline.
15 min: McGinn is down in the middle of the pitch and receiving treatment. The physios are stretching his right leg out a bit.
14 min: Bit of rough and tumble as Röhl bumps into Konsa and Villa get a free-kick in their own half. Cash then goes in strongly in midfield as the ball changes hands more than once in quick succession. Cheers as Grealish loses out on the left wing.
12 min: Rogers tries to carve out a shooting position but he’s smothered by Everton bodies on the edge of the box. Villa win it back high up and Maatsen’s low shot across goal from distance is easily gathered by Pickford.
10 min: Armstrong is pulled up by the referee for a high foot on Cash, who goes down holding his face. It would’ve been a yellow if he had connected … but he didn’t. Everton fail to play out from the back and Villa come again.
8 min: Villa work the free-kick out wide on the right and Rogers gets the ball of McGinn before heading into the box. He dribbles past one but not another and the ball is cleared before he can pull the trigger.
7 min: McGinn gets involved in a couple of battles with Mykolenko and Garner in midfield. He doesn’t come off worse. Garner is penalised for another foul and Villa may loft the free-kick into the box from deep …
5 min: Big chance for Villa! Torres spots Buendía’s run in behind and the Argentinian lays the ball back on the edge of the box for Rogers, who scoops his shot well over the bar. He would expect to score in his form.
4 min: Villa settle into the game after that early scare. Possession, any possession, will do for now. They take a very long time over a free-kick just inside the Everton half that goes short anyway.
2 min: Fast start for Everton. Grealish gets on the ball in the final third and is greeted by plenty of boos from the home crowd.
Everton hit the post!
1 min: My word, within seconds! Everton launch it forward and Merlin Röhl prods a low effort across goal that comes off the foot of the far post. What a start that almost was for the visitors.
Kick-off
James Garner gets the game under way for Everton, who are in a yellowy away kit with dark shorts.
Premier League report: Will Unwin was at Molineux this afternoon. Let’s hope this one is a bit livelier. The players are in the tunnel, kick-off is in five minutes.
Harrison Armstrong, 18, will start his third game in a row for Everton since returning from his loan at Preston.
“He’s a fantastic player,” says Ashley Young, who was at Everton until last season, in the Sky Sports studio. “I remember being there and him coming to train with us. He’s playing beyond his years. It took him about a week to be [used to being] in the first team squad – he put his foot in on James Tarkowski straight away.
“He’s got that hunger and desire. He can play as a 10 or an 8. He came up against me in training and every time I beat him I made sure he knew about it.”
High praise, indeed.
Jeremy Boyce writes in: “This should be a good match. Villa are the epitome of ‘quietly going about their business’, winning matches, racking up points and letting others make all the noise and have the focus. Meanwhile, Moyes is back at his spiritual home and has transformed the Toffees from basket cases to solid contenders in his own inimitable style and image. Irresistible force meets immovable object?”
I’m mostly with you Jeremy but I think there would be few Everton fans even who would call them an immovable object. Fairly sturdy object prone to a moment of madness?
Jack Grealish is making his third return to Villa Park since leaving for Manchester City in 2021. He’s yet to score against his old club in five games home or away. Could today be the day?
Grealish record v Aston Villa:
With Manchester City – P4 W3 D0 L1, 0 goals, 0 assists
With Everton – P1 W0 D1 L0, 0 goals, 0 assists
Grealish record this season:
Matches (all comps): 21
Goals: 2
Assists: 6
Steven Pye of That 1980s sports blog, part of the Guardian Sport Network, has offered up his recount of the bonkers 1989 meeting between these two at Villa Park.
“David Platt doing David Platt things, Ian Ormondroyd on the left wing, a thumping own goal, and Villa winning 6-2 live on ITV during their surprise challenge for the title under Graham Taylor,” he summarises.
Everton are still without Iliman Ndiaye and Idrissa Gueye, whose involvement at Afcon has gone right until the end. Both are sure to be involved when their Senegal team take on Morocco in the final later today.
David Moyes says the club will back him in the transfer market this month but isn’t expecting big-money signings after the summer’s outlay.
“All managers are hoping to get bigger [spending] numbers but I think the club has outlined that what we spent in the summer, that was the main part,” he said this week. “It’s not me saying it, the CEO is saying it as well: we don’t expect to be doing too much business.
“But genuinely if I can get a couple of new players in, the club will certainly back me – I have no doubt about that. Absolutely they will, they have been really good. Maybe they can’t back me on a £60m or £70m signing but they will back me on what they think will be the right numbers if we think we can come up with the players required.”
Aston Villa fan Dave Slater is quick out of the traps with a prediction: “I think we’ve relied quite heavily on late goals and Everton at home have been hard to break down. I think it’ll be 2-1 Villa coming from behind.”
On a possible title challenge: “Ask me at Easter. Not sure we have the squad and we don’t score enough goals. But everyone’s dropping points!”
Aston Villa will set a new club record of 12 consecutive home wins if they beat Everton today – their previous record of 11 coming under Tony Barton in 1983.
“We are not feeling something extra, we are feeling we need three points,” said Unai Emery this week. “Maybe we can get some new target for winning our matches in a row, but the priority is to win. If we are winning, we are achieving [the record].
“It’s not the mentality we have. The mentality we have is to focus on each match with the points we have and the competition we’re facing and to get the points we need for our consistency in the top positions in the Premier League.”
Starting lineups
Youri Tielemans comes in for the injured Boubacar Kamara in the Villa midfield, while Ollie Watkins starts in place of Donyell Malen (who has since joined Roma on loan) from the FA Cup win against Tottenham last weekend.
Thierno Barry replaces Beto up front for Everton and Jack Grealish returns to the XI in place of Tyler Dibling in two changes from the Cup defeat to Sunderland. Michael Keane is serving the second of a three-match ban.
Aston Villa (4-2-3-1): Martínez; Cash, Konsa, Torres, Maatsen; Bogarde, Tielemans; McGinn, Buendía, Rogers; Watkins.
Subs: Bizot, Wright, Lindelöf, Digne, García, Mings, Hemmings, Guessand, Jimoh-Aloba.
Everton (4-2-3-1): Pickford; Patterson, Tarkowski, O’Brien, Mykolenko; Garner, Röhl; McNeil, Armstrong, Grealish; Barry.
Subs: Travers, King, Coleman, Aznou, Dibling, Beto, Welch, Campbell.
Preamble
Yes, it’s still only January but Aston Villa are well in the Premier League title race. And after both Arsenal and Manchester City dropped points yesterday, they now have the chance to make some gains. Avoiding defeat at home to Everton this afternoon would send Villa above City into second and a win would take them to within four points of leaders Arsenal.
Everton need no reminding of how stern a test they are facing today, visiting a Villa team that have won their last 11 matches at Villa Park – their best run since they were reigning European champions in 1982-83. David Moyes’ side have, however, won three of their last five on the road.
Team news is on the way shortly. Be sure to get in touch with your thoughts on the game, whether from the stands or the sofa.
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