Conclusion

It’s amazing. I didn’t expect this game to yield the interesting statistics that it has or, indeed, that I would spend as much time reflecting on the game. For me, it was a fascinating encounter between two much lauded managers and the game itself had several acts.

The opening 20 minutes or so were very open with Aston Villa very much in the ascendancy, but Everton showed they had a decent jab on them. I mentioned the opening goal coming against the run of play and it really did: Tim Howard had already made 2 impressive saves, Villa also had 2 shots off target and another 3 blocked by the time the Australian nodded his side in front.

Villa were then knocked off their stride and Everton came into the game with it ending up pretty even by the half time break.

Everton were either forced or chose to sit very deep in the second half, but for all of Villa’s domination, there was very little action in front of Howard’s goal. Frustration must surely have been setting in for every Villa fan by the time James Milner showed exactly why he’s just been nominated for PFA Young Player of the Year (Congratulation James) by instinctively exploited some rare space to send in a quite delightful diagonal ball that required very little from Gabby to direct it into the far corner of the goal.

Everton’s response was immediate and possibly surprising given how they had approached the half up to that point. I couldn’t say whether Moyes had given his men certain instructions in order to manufacture the space for Tim Cahill at another set piece or Villa were once again simply guilty of lacklustre defending, but the fact that Cahill had only Ashley Young to prevent him nodding his side back in front is frankly amazing.

And then it was back to Everton parking the bus. This exactly why one can’t simply point to one statistic or another, passing for instance, to make any claims about the nature of a game or even the style of football. Fans of high passing numbers will no doubt be delighted that Everton watched us moving the ball from one side of the pitch and back again safely in front of them.

Frankly, making 20 lateral passes before sending a hopeful cross into a static box is barely more sophisticated than playing the Rory Delap throw in percentage game. Once again though, don’t lose sight of the fact that this happened because Everton recognised that if they tried to play football against us, we’d beat them. Oh, and they had the lead and didn’t really need to play football thank you very much. There’s no points for style after all.

It’s almost a catch 22 for the manager who gets so much stick for selection and substitution policies, or lack thereof. As I’ve said, with Villa chasing the game against a stubborn Everton side, we couldn’t find a way through with the system and personnel on the pitch. However, if we did manage to find a way to get back on terms, that was a great side to exploit any space that Everton did present as they chased the game. So what do you do? Stick or twist?

MON stuck until forced to withdraw Warnock, but deserves credit for sending Delfouneso on in his place and going 3-4-3 for the last 12 minutes.

It may be a bit rich with crediting that change with finding the breakthrough in injury time, but take nothing away from Villa, we kept pushing hard and eventually the efforts paid off against a very good and well organized team.

I think that the bottom line is that the statistics below show that had we found a late winner somehow,  it would not have been undeserved and that’s been the case with many of the draws we’ve had to settle for lately.  We really are just a piece or two short to solving the puzzle of unlocking sides like Everton and killing these games off.

2	Aston Villa	Apr 14th 2010	Everton	2
	56%	Possession %	44%
	15	Shots	14
	4	On Target	4
	7	Corners	7
	3	Offsides	0
72′ Agbonlahor, 90′ Jagielka (OG)		Scorers	23′, 74′ Cahill
Milner, Petrov		Booked	Howard, Cahill
		Sent Off
	318	Good Passes	238
	57%	CPS %	43%
	64	Bad Passes	75
	83%	Completion %	76%
	17	Interceptions	15
	43	Tackles Won	35
	22	Tackles Lost	33
	9	Blocks	4
	10	Free Kicks	14
Starting XI: 1. Friedel 24. Cuellar 25. Warnock 29. Collins 5. Dunne 19. Petrov 8. Milner 7. Young 6. Downing 11. Agbonlahor 10. Carew Subs: 22. Guzan 14. Delfouneso 4. Sidwell 16. Delph 2. Young 23. Beye 18. Heskey
Average Position Map

[Original data and graphics courtesy of ESPN and The Guardian]