Unai Emery did not hold back. In his programme notes the Aston Villa manager turned to caps lock. “THIS MATCH IS CRUCIAL,” he said, spying an opportunity after Arsenal and Manchester City dropped points, with a golden chance to return to second and cut the leaders’ advantage to four oints.
Everton, however, had other ideas and, as the hour mark approached, Thierno Barry pounced on an Emiliano Martínez fumble after a Pau Torres lapse to condemn Villa to a punishing defeat. They are almost unheard of around here, this only a third home league defeat since the start of last season.
For David Moyes, whose side recovered from the setback of Jake O’Brien’s first-half header being disallowed because an offside Harrison Armstrong was deemed to be interfering with play, this was a major triumph. Up in the stands Thomas Tuchel was surely impressed with James Garner who again excelled in midfield and, from an England perspective, he outshone Ezri Konsa, Ollie Watkins and Morgan Rogers, who on his 100th Villa appearance should have done better with a couple of chances.
Jack Grealish, collar up, enjoyed this third appearance at Villa Park since leaving for Manchester City and at full time he embarked on a lap of appreciation, lauding the Holte End and blowing kisses to the Trinity Road Stand before signing autographs at the mouth of the tunnel. “It must have been a tough situation for him to come back here today,” Moyes said, alluding presumably to his last appearance here with City, when he was involved in a heated exchange with Martínez and security shepherded him down the tunnel.
For Villa, this threatened to be a frustrating afternoon from the moment Merlin Röhl clinked a post inside 11 seconds and things went from bad to worse when their captain, John McGinn, was forced off with an injury after 18 minutes. McGinn’s departure seemed to disrupt Villa, already missing another trusty pillar in Boubacar Kamara, who Emery conceded could be out long-term with a knee injury. The former Everton midfielder Amadou Onana, a £50m Villa signing, was absent with a hamstring injury.
Villa seemed to quickly run out of ideas and the galling thing was that in Turin, two days after Donyell Malen was permitted to join Roma – a player who operated as a super-sub for much of his time at the club – scored 26 minutes into his Serie A debut, his goal helping to win a game being played almost in parallel to Villa’s disappointing defeat. Villa wasted chances, Rogers spooning over close to the penalty spot on five minutes and Evann Guessand, who replaced McGinn, bumbling his effort when released through one-on-one with Jordan Pickford after reading Youri Tielemans’s typically superb splitting through ball.
Towards the end of the first half Guessand, to his credit, sent a header against the crossbar from a dainty Tielemans cross, leaping above his marker Vitaliy Mykolenko at the back post. Pickford was beaten. The Everton goalkeeper later pulled off a fine save to keep out a speculative first-time Rogers effort with a little more than 20 minutes of normal time to play. By that point, though, Villa trailed after a catalogue of errors culminated in Barry’s goal.
The chain started when Ezri Konsa’s simple pass bounced off Torres’s right leg and into the path of Dwight McNeil, who sent a curling left-foot shot towards goal. Martínez sprawled to his right and looked to have claimed the ball with both hands but instead spilled it, presenting Barry, preferred to Beto, with the chance to nonchalantly dink in.
Moyes was delighted with Barry’s “exquisite finish” and heaped praise on Garner. “Jimmy was probably as good as anybody,” the Everton manager said. “I thought he was immense. I don’t think he’s out of place with some of the best players in the Premier League at the moment. I think it was a huge day for two or three players who really stepped up.”
Moyes was glad that O’Brien’s disallowed header, at the end of a short‑corner routine, proved a footnote. “We’ve had quite a period where there’s very few decisions gone for us, whether it be getting people sent off, or hitting each other, or pulling hair or something else,” he said, referencing Michael Keane’s red card against Wolves and Idrissa Gana Gueye’s dismissal for confronting Keane in November. “So there has been an awful lot going against us recently. That was another one today.”
Villa required a lift but from where? Guessand was their only naturally forward-thinking player on a bench that also contained two goalkeepers, four defenders and two teenage academy midfielders, with the 18-year-old George Hemmings introduced for his home debut. Everton were also thin on options, again naming only eight substitutes. But, as in a ruthless victory at Nottingham Forest before the turn of the year, a solid defensive display proved the platform for success. When Villa opened the door, Everton seized their opportunity, Barry lifting his clever finish over a desperate Martínez.
