There’s no getting away from it, that was a poor performance against an Everton side unable (or unwilling) to field a single recognised striker. We might owe a somewhat sheepish nod in the referee’s direction, but Petrov and Gabby somehow managed to cancel out Leon Osman’s opener and Leighton Baines’ second half penalty to grab a hugely valuable point we barely deserved.
Any hope I harboured of Everton being bogged down by their off-field issues were killed off immediately as the
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It’s the first Premiership game after an international break and the transfer deadline day changes. Since we last played, Luke Young and Jean II Makoun headed for pastures new, but were replaced by Alan Hutton and Jermaine Jenas.
Here’s how the two managers are going to look for the points today:
Hutton replaces Chris Herd in the only change to the starting line-up against Wolves, but Jenas doesn’t make the 18. David Moyes has both of his new boys (Royston Drenthe and
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Another international break has come and gone, time to focus on the bread and butter stuff. If you watched England labour to three points against Wales at Wembley this week, as a Villa fan, the line-up may have looked a lot like the image below. It probably stung quite a bit for most of us.
This is a relatively rare experience for us, but it’s been coming and it’s easy to lose sight of an important fact amongst the bitterness. In
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It’s not enough to be good, you have to have a share of luck now and again too. Luck is something that deserted us some time ago; its evil cousin, bad luck, getting its feet under the table in short order. Today, good fortune appeared to briefly return when Jermaine Beckford’s thunderous shot ricocheted off the underside of the crossbar and was adjudged not to have crossed the line.
While Everton protested, Brad Friedel spotted the opportunity to move the ball
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With West Ham still leading West Ham, lifting the Hammers up the table as things stand, here’s how we’re going to have a crack at the injury ravaged Everton today:
Everton
Aston Villa
24
Tim Howard
1
Brad Friedel
2
Tony Hibbert
36
Kyle Walker
6
Phil Jagielka
5
Richard Dunne
15
Sylvain Distin
29
James Collins
3
Leighton Baines
2
Luke Young
18
Phil Neville
20
Nigel Reo-Coker
5
John Heitinga
17
Jean II Makoun
7
Diniyar Bilyaletdinov
6
Stewart Downing
23
Seamus Coleman
7
Ashley Young
21
Leon Osman
11
Gabriel Agbonlahor
16
Jermaine Beckford
39
Darren Bent
Subs
Subs
1
Jan Mucha
33
Andy Marshall
Aristote Nsiala
24
Carlos Cuellar
19
Magaye Gueye
16
Fabian Delph
30
Shkodran Mustafi
8
Robert Pires
Adam Forshaw
19
Stiliyan Petrov
Conor McAleny
12
Marc Albrighton
Apostolos Vellios
18
Emile Heskey
A predictably tight affair was statistically edged by Villa. Perhaps Everton will be the more satisfied with the draw, they’ll certainly have less complaints about being reduced to 10 men. Ironically, Everton could actually appeal Bilyaletdinov’s early bath as he received a straight red card while Carlos Cuellar was harshly shown a second yellow card late on, but dismissals resulting from two bookings cannot be appealed. Yeah, that’s fair, isn’t it?
* The sharp eyed among may well notice
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Aston Villa had to battle back from a goal down to share the points with Everton at Goodison Park in a game that was few on chances, but sprung into life in the final minutes with both sides reduced to 10 men.
Villa created perhaps the better chances of the first half, although Everton edged the possession. Nevertheless, Everton would consider themselves somewhat fortunate to take the lead on the stroke of half time when a ball lobbed into the
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The magic of the FA Cup is over for another season for Aston Villa, Everton deservedly go through to the quarter finals.
They think it’s all over… oh wait, WTF?!?! It is now!! Ashley Young wins a thrilling game in front of 50,000 scousers still celebrating getting the draw. Whoops.