Everton 0-1 Aston Villa: Final | Blues undone by error-strewn performance

Yesterday at 04:24 PM

The most-played fixture in English football features the Second Coming of the Moyesiah

Live Blog

Fulltime Thoughts - Simply not good enough from Everton, way too many mistakes to not be punished by a quality side like Aston Villa. 1-0 to the visitors, the Moyes era off to a false start.

90+5' - Villa have a freekick in the Everton half, that should be the game there.
Too many mistakes today from Everton, misplaced passes, bad touches, the lot. Villa win 1-0, Moyes' return spoiled by the visitors.

90+3' - Ball to Lindstrom from Ndiaye, lovely volleyed cross and DCL just scoops it over with the goal at his mercy. That was the chance folks, that was it.

90+2' - Ricochet falls to Mangala on the left, his shot is deflected by Kamara, could go anywhere but it goes towards Martinez, of course.

90' - Only about four minutes to be added on here. Everton unable to control the ball in the final third.

86' - Ndiaye wins a freekick on the left, deep ball headed back by Tarky, eventually a foul given on Tarkowski for fouling Digne.

82' - Moyes is going to mix things up here, with Jake O'Brien and Beto coming on. Looks like a 3-5-2, with Young and Doucoure going off.
Good play from the Blues, Myko cross wins a corner, nothing comes of it.

77' - Villa steal the ball as Gana and Doucs pass it back and forth. Not enough quality on the ball to create anything.
Long ball for Villa is going out, Pickford is there to usher it on its way and goes down theatrically as Digne challenges him. The two teammates can share a laugh there.

73' - A lot of possession, a lot of sideways passing, only Ndiaye has the creativity to do anything on the ball. He wins a corner off Cash now on the left.
Good ball into the box again, ball pinging about but again the Toffees cannot get a decisive touch and it's partly cleared.
Back into the box, Branthwaite tries to control and his shot is charged down, urgh.

70' - Everton are being very aggressive now, Tarkowski is pushing all the way up to the half line, and now Villa almost take advantage as Ramsey is on Watkins' shoulder to get a shooting chance, but the Blues fall back and defend well.

64' - Tarky cuts out a cross, corner to the visitors. Taken short and goes out for an Everton throw.

61' - Ndiaye finds Doucs in space on the left, cross blocked for a corner. Great ball into the box, DCL tugged down, Lindstrom pushed in the back as he goes to head the ball, but the ref says nothing doing. Come on!!

60' - First change is by the Blues. Everton have had more possession in the last few minutes and now Jesper Lindstrom is on for Harrison.

55' - Ndiaye's efforts wins a corner on the left. Into the box and Martinez claims it. It's loud at Goodison now.

52' - Everton try to respond and Gana puts in a strong challenge on the edge of the Villa box, but the ref deems it a foul and books the Blues midfielder.
Now Onana could be in trouble here as he stops an Everton counter, surely that's a booking? Nope the ref deems, and books Pickford for his protestations.

50' - Villa score. Ball was pinging about in midfield, Branthwaite once again caught going too high, put his foot in and ended up turning it into a through ball for the visitors. The pass from Rogers is to a wide open Watkins who is one-on-one against Pickford, and the England #1's positioning is awful and the striker slides the ball home easily. Everton 0-1 Aston Villa.

47' - Harrison bundles Ramsey over, freekick near the left sideline. Digne into the box, Myko does well to clear.
Long throw causing chaos in the Everton box, Ramsey holds off Young and swivels to take a shot, just over! Just going to say 'whew' again.
Mings loses track of the long ball, DCL trips over him and goes down in the box, never a penalty though.

46' - Second half is underway, doesn't look like we have any changes from either side. Blues attacking the Gwladys Street end, can they get some luck going there?

Halftime Thoughts - An error-strew performance so far for Everton, but they've also looked decent in spots. Aston Villa's finishing letting them down, 0-0 at the break.

45+1' - Oooh! Rogers drives towards goal, shot blocked and falls to Ramsey who beats Pickford.. and the far post. Whew.
Halftime whistle goes, somehow still 0-0 at Goodison Park.

44' - Chance!! Everton do well to win the ball on the right, and they can string together a concerted attack, DCL does well to control behind the backline and he beats Martinez, but the shot dribbles towards the goal with little power and Kamara can clear. Villa wanted an offside, assistant referee kept his flag down.

42' - Doucoure wins another corner on the right. They keep it away from Mings this time, but instead it can't even clear the first man and Villa get it away.

40' - Kamara with a shooting chance, right at Pickford and he goes down but can't take it cleanly, luckily Branthwaite is on hand to hammer it away.

38' - Big interception from Young, he finds Myko in space, poor cross actually but Doucs can take a stabbed shot, but it's straight at the goalie. A shot on goal though!
One fullback passing the ball to the other, in the attacking third? OMG who are these Blues?

37' - Everton's press there almost reaps rewards as Martinez' panicked clearance is almost won by Mangala, but he concedes a foul.

35' - Deep cross from Myko, under pressure from Harrison Digne puts it out for a corner.
Young outswinger, Mings again, Gana back into the box but there's a couple of Everton players offside.

32' - Myko with a good tackle to win the ball off Rogers, but Young stamps on Ramsey and it's a freekick, about 25 yards out. Digne over it, as is Tielemans.. it's the former Blue, and the wall blocks it, and it goes out for a goalkick. Ball did go off Young's head and ricocheted off Doucoure's arm which was up in the air, but VAR did not look too hard at that.

30' - Doucoure does very well on the ball in the middle and keeps it, but the Blues cannot turn that into an attack of promise. He's looked better, more like the Doucs of old.

27' - Chance. Myko plays a lovely ball behind the backline and DCL runs onto it, chests it down and hits it left-footed, it's just wide of the far post. Better that.
Another long ball from Tarky and DCL almost brings it down with Doucs in close attendance too.

25' - Everton try to play out of the back themselves this time. After the backline passes it between themselves a few times, they push forward and Harrison turns it back over.

23' - Another Villa corner, partly cleared, cross back into the box and Pickford collects. Ball comes out to Myko who promptly hands the ball right back to the visitors. Come on you Blues.

21' - Mangala does well to intercept a Tielemans pass, but the Blues are simply incapable of creating anything with the ball. Villa do work very hard to get the ball back whenever they lose it.

17' - OMG Ashley Young what are you doing?! A horrendous back pass from midfield to no one.. no one but Ollie Watkins that is, but Pickford is out in a flash, and the striker puts it wide of the far post. Wheeeeeew.

15' - Quarter of an hour in. Everton don't have much for an attacking plan beyond hoofing it long to DCL. Can't expect too much change this quickly.
It does work out this time though as Young's cross is blocked for a corner after DCL won the long ball.
Mings heads the corner away, falls for Gana whose volley is skewing wide but comes off a Villa player for another corner. Mings rises highest again, and clears again.

12' - Onana pulls Ndiaye down and the Blues have a freekick on the edge of the attacking third. Doubt the midfielder will come back out in the second half at this rate.
Young's delivery is poor, low and cleared. When will Dwight McNeil be back?!

11' - Gana clearance charged down and Villa can shoot again, but good defending and now the Blues can break, Doucoure finds DCL in space, guess what, he's offside.

9' - Amadou looking very hard to make an impression against his former side, a bit too much in fact. He goes clattering into Gueye and is booked.

8' - Ball control in tight spaces has been the Blues undoing for some time now, and they simply cannot string passes together here. Horrible mistake by Branthwaite allows Villa to break, and Tarky somehow gets a block on a 2-against-1 chance!

6' - From the Everton left this time, Digne's corner into the six yard box and Tarky does very well to head over for another corner.
Tielemans again, and headed away, still with the visitors though and Onana tries another shot, wide this time.

4' - Couple of former Evertonians in the Villa ranks in Lucas Digne and Amadou Onana. Now Onana wins a corner with Tarkowski deflecting his shot from outside the box. Low inswinger and Young clears.
From the throw in Everton cannot get solid contact on the ball and Rogers takes a shot, Pickford saves well but it's another corner now.

3' - As expected, Villa trying to play out the back and Everton pressing them high.

1' - We are underway, the Toffees in their traditional royal blue shirts, the visitors in their claret kits.

Moyesy is here!

Starting Lineups

Everton - For his first XI after coming back, David Moyes has opted to play it safe keeping Abdoulaye Doucoure and Jack Harrison in. The players will know the next couple of weeks is an audition for the rest of the season and beyond.

Aston Villa - No real surprises from Unai Emery here, with a number of injuries affecting his decisions.

Preview

Everton and Aston Villa will lock horns tonight in the most-played fixture in English football. What is certain to be a bigger headline is that this will be David Moyes' first game back in charge, and his appearance in the dugout is sure to be met with a loud roar, but will that translate into the famous bearpit atmosphere that has greeted sides at Fortress Goodison?

The Blues will certainly need a bit of that Moyes magic because the Toffees have lost their way at home. Winning more of their remaining home games than not is what will be required to ensure survival, but right now it does feel like anything is possible over the next six months and beyond.

That kind of faith is made possible by watching the growth of Villa, who were just half a dozen or so years ago midtable in the Championship. Now they're sitting on the fringes of the top six and hobnobbing with the Champions League elite - remember when that was us not that long ago?

Match Details

Competition: Premier League Matchweek 21

Date and start time: Wednesday, January 15th at 11:30 a.m. PT / 2:30 p.m ET / 7:30 p.m. BST

Stadium: Goodison Park, Liverpool, England, United Kingdom

Capacity: 39,572

Weather: 45°F/7°C, cloudy, 0% chance of precipitation, 18 mph winds

How to Watch/Listen

TV: USA Network, Universo - United States; TNT Sports 2 - United Kingdom; Fubo- Canada, beIN Sports Premium 2, SuperSport OTT 4, SuperSport MaXimo 1, Canal+ Sport 5 Afrique, ESPN 2 Caribbean, Star Sports Select 2

Radio: evertontv, BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra

Live stream: Fubo, nbcsports.com, NBC Sports App, UNIVERSO NOW, Telemundo Deportes En Vivo, discovery+, discovery+ app, ESPN Play Sur, beIN SPORTS CONNECT, DStv Now, RUSH, Disney+ Hotstar, JioTV

Gamethread: There will be a live blog for this game, with our coverage continuing after the final whistle with the match recap and reaction.

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Information from LiveSoccerTV.com

Last Meeting

The Blues have a pretty miserable record against Villa in recent times, with no wins in their last eleven clashes. The last time they played at Villa Park in September, the Blues had a 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Dwight McNeil and Dominic Calvert-Lewin, yet came away with nothing.

No better way than beating them to get Moyes' new tenure off to a flying start, given that Villa have lost five successive Premier League away games, conceding at least two goals in each of those games.