Villa Bounce Back With Deserved Everton Win – Match Stats

Well, there’s no denying Aston Villa’s 2022/23 Premier League opener against Bournemouth at Dean Court was a total Trump show, but now former England midfielders Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard face off against each other as we welcome Everton to Villa Park for our second game of the year.

Some fans feel this is already a must win game for Gerrard given how we dramatically tailed off after his first few games that gave hope of his managerial skills. I’m not in that boat despite my own well aired concerns, Everton are as bigger a mess as we are right now – so it could absolutely go either way or just peter out into an absolutely nothing of a game. What all fans want to see though are solid tactics, some understanding between the players, fewer avoidable errors and just something to show that last season has been learned from, this pre season has achieved something, and we again have the basics handled that we can grow from.

Here’s hoping…and we roughly got what we wanted.

It was a far brighter start from the side and whilst it wasn’t perfect and Everton had an effort rightly ruled out by offside, few could argue we didn’t dominate the first half and we got our reward for it. Just after the half hour mark, Ollie Watkins fed Danny Ings inside the penalty box and we had the advantage.

We should’ve really taken a greater lead before the break, and although Everton came more into the game and started creating some chances, we weren’t overly in trouble and following his introduction Emi Buendia should’ve made it two, but his effort was cleared off the line.

With a few minutes remaining on the clock, Buendia got his goal as Watkins grabbed his second assist of the afternoon but it was squeaky bum time when Lucas Digne turned the ball into his own net just two minutes later.

2-1 and it was a deserved win with the improvement we all wanted to see. Long may that continue with a trip to Selhurst Park to face Patrick Vieira’s Crystal Palace side next on the cards.

So nice to have Man of the Match back!

Aston Villa				Everton
Ings (31), Buendia (85)				Digne (og 87)
Martinez				Pickford
Cash			90+4	Patterson
Diego Carlos			90+5	Holgate
Mings				Coady			81
Digne				Tarkowski
Kamara				Mykolenko
McGinn				Doucoure			35
J Ramsey			90+4	Iwobi
Coutinho			60	McNeil			64
Watkins				Gordon
Ings			78	Gray			81
Substitutes
Konsa			90+4	Keane
Douglas Luiz				Onana			81
Buendia			60	Begovic
Chambers			90+5	Alli			81
Augustinsson				Coleman
Young			90+4	Davies			35
Olsen				Vinagre
Bailey			78	Rondon			64
Archer				Mills

Game Statistics
12	Goal attempts	15
4	On Target	4
5	Corners	8
9	Fouls	7
4	Yellow Cards	1
0	Red Cards	0
58	%	42