Aston Villa 0 Everton 0
A fit Jack Grealish was a sight for sore eyes for Aston Villa and England fans, even if the playmaker’s return after a three-month lay-off with shin trouble was not enough to raise this match above mediocrity. Grealish, introduced from the bench in the 72nd minute, looked understandably off the pace even in this tepid contest but his return raises hopes that he could regain his best form in time for the European Championship finals.
Villa won three of the 12 matches that Grealish missed after injuring his shin in February and have had to downgrade their ambitions for the season accordingly. Neither team took much satisfaction from this draw, which does the bare minimum for Villa’s ambitions of a top-half finish and Everton’s European aspirations.
Everton, too, had encouraging news on the injury front before kick-off, with Aboudalaye Doucouré making a welcome return to their lineup after a lay-off of more than two months. Carlo Ancelotti has got his tactics for away matches right much more often than not this season, with Everton gaining almost twice as many points on their travels than at Goodison Park. Here the Italian opted for a different formation to the one used in Sunday’s victory at West Ham, with Séamus Coleman starting in midfield and Mason Holgate filling the right-back berth in a flat back four.
Villa had much the better of the first half and would have taken the lead if not for their lack of a cutting edge. Everton were grateful for the suspension of Ollie Watkins, who had tormented them when Villa won 2-1 at Goodison Park a fortnight ago. Keinan Davis, entrusted with his first league start of the season, is a useful target man but is not as dynamic as Watkins. It fell to Ross Barkley to do most of the harassing of Everton defenders when Villa did not have the ball. He did that diligently but, when he got the ball, was wasteful too often and was replaced after an hour by Jacob Ramsey.
Everton were slow and sloppy in the first period, although they did muster the first shot on target in the ninth minute when Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s header from a cross by Coleman was easily saved by Emi Martínez. Tyrone Mings could have at least tested Jordan Pickford at the other end in the 18th minute when Douglas Luiz chipped a cross into the near post, but the centre-back sent a diving header wide from six yards.
Anwar El Ghazi also failed to land his shot on target when presented with a chance to curl one into the top corner from the edge of the area two minutes later. Bertrand Traoré was Villa’s most inventive player in the first half, his sporadic trickery a highlight amid much drudgery. The referee, Martin Atkinson, mind you, believed Traoré took things too far when he fell in the box just before half-time: cue a booking for simulation. Atkinson was the VAR official whose ability to detect a dive was open to question on Sunday when Watkins was sent off against Manchester United for an alleged attempt to deceive.
Earlier, in the 23rd minute, Traoré ran boldly at the Everton defence and slipped a pass through to Davis, who miscontrolled and then, in his eagerness to make amends, got in the way of Matty Cash’s shot from the corner of the box. Davis did better moments later when he bounded down the left and sent an inviting ball across the face of goal, but no one was on hand to meet it. Villa’s attack was not quite clicking.
Everton perked up just before the break. They would have scored if Cavlert-Lewin had been able to reach an excellent cross by Lucas Digne; the striker stretched but could not get his toe to it. The visitors took that momentum into the second period and Martínez had to make a smart save to deny Ben Godfrey in the 52nd minute.
Another 20 minutes fairly meandered by before Dean Smith turned to Grealish for inspiration, but he exerted little influence. Everton came close to snatching victory three minutes from time when Calvert-Lewin rose to meet another fine cross by Digne. Martínez, though, made a splendid save to claim a 15th clean sheet of the season, equalling the Villa Premier League-era record set by Brad Friedel in 2009-10. – Guardian
