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 that I’ve taken the slightly unorthodox step of showing 12 Villa players in the average position map below. Usually I restrict this graphic to the starting XI only and, given MON’s infrequent substitutions, this needs little explanation. On this occasion however, since John Carew played exactly same length of time on the pitch as James Milner, it made sense to include the goal scorer.

Some interesting aspects highlighted by the map from this game; Carlos Cuellar had a very decent game at right back and got forward more during this match than any previous when playing full back, almost as advanced on average as Warnock. He also managed to get in 3 successful crosses, a figure only beaten Warnock.

Sidwell did a better job of getting forward, leaving Petrov the deeper, protective role. Regardless of how you may perceive Sidwell’s active influence in the game, I feel he’s better employed trying to link up in the final third.

Heskey sat fairly deep, holding up play to link up mainly with Ash and Warnock down the left. He managed to unleash a couple of shots, neither on target, and only Petrov drew more fouls. That is all.

1	Everton	Oct 31st 2009	Aston Villa	1
	48	Possession %	52
	11	Shots	15
	2	On Target	4
	3	Corners	4
	1	Offsides	1
45′ Bilyaletdinov		Scorers	46′ Carew
Cahill		Booked	Warnock, Cuellar, Carew
Bilyaletdinov		Sent Off	Cuellar
	208	Good Passes	225
	64	Bad Passes	61
	19	Interceptions	17
	37	Tackles Won	34
	28	Tackles Lost	29
	5	Blocks	2
	19	Free Kicks	17
Starting XI: 1. Friedel 24. Cuellar 25. Warnock 29. Collins 5. Dunne 19. Petrov 4. Sidwell 7. Young 8. Milner 18. Heskey 11. Agbonlahor Subs: 22. Guzan 10. Carew 20. Reo-Coker 21. Shorey 2. Young 23. Beye 16. Delph
Average Position Map