VIEW FROM THE BLUE

A Point Salvaged as Anichebe Makes His Point

By Lyndon Lloyd   ::  15/01/2012

Aston Villa 1-1 Everton

It's fair to say that prior to the turn of the year, few Evertonians would have picked Victor Anichebe as the goalscoring saviour on two trips to the Midlands this month. Prone to injury ? indeed, he was sidelined for all of the first half of the current campaign ? his frustrating the-world's-against-me demeanour and goals return of just one goal in 43 matches had him more or less written off as less than Premier League material.

With a brace of well-taken goals, Goodison's forgotten man has now scored twice as many in the League as his supposedly superior teammate, Louis Saha, has this season, two more than Tim Cahill has managed in 13 months, and earned the Blues four points from the trips to West Bromwich Albion and Aston Villa.

If his first was all down to a striker's instincts and quick reactions, his goal at Villa Park owed much to the vision of Landon Donovan to spring the offside trap but it still needed a confident finish past Shay Given to cancel out Darren Bent's 56th opener.

The result was probably a fair reflection of a tight affair between two teams struggling for form, goals and confidence. A tense home crowd had been kept silent by Everton's territiorial superiority in the first half but the Villains managed to reach halftime goalless thanks to the quick reactions of Shay Given.

The Irishman was playing his first game back from injury and though he was spared having to make a save when Tim Cahill failed to make contact with Darron Gibson's enterprising ball over the top, Given denied Saha after 16 minutes with an impressive one-handed save as the Frenchman tried to head Leighton Baines' free kick into the far corner.

Six minutes later, after Saha, looking odds on to bury Donovan's delicious cross into an empty net, appeared to be pulled back illegally by Alan Hutton, Baines whipped another dangerous ball across the face of Villa's goal and Given had to make a reflex save to prevent Neil Warnock from heading into his own net.

The first period was bookended, though, by saves from Tim Howard: the first after six minutes denied Stilyan Petrov from a direct free kick following John Heitinga's poor tackle on Bent; the second saw the American push Gaby Agbonlahor's attempted curler behind for a corner that, thankfully, came to nothing.

So far, so fair for the Blues who were in an all-too familiar mode in the first 45 minutes. Lots of possession against a nervy defence but without the incisiveness to create enough chances to opening the scoring. Gibson was quietly effective in central midfield alongside Marouane Fellaini and made an encouraging debut overall with some confident tackles, intelligent passing and regular availablity for the ball.

But the Blues as a whole were still giving the ball away too much, relying too much on the long ball at times from the back and generally failing to make regular inroads into the Villa defence. The home side topped Everton 4-1 in shots on goal in the first half but while they began the second the stronger team, it was David Moyes's team who almost broke the deadlock.

Royston Drenthe was awarded a dubious free kick in the 50th minute for a "foul" by James Collins and when Baines swung the ball in, Fellaini powered a header that was destined to creep inside the far post before it hit Given's outstretched forearm and ricocheted to safety from Villa's perspective.

A spell of pressure from Alex McLeish's side in which Howard twice had to punch the ball behind in a goalmouth melee bore fruit six minutes later, though. Fellaini and Heitinga got in each other's way as they went for a cross from Mark Albrighton and the unsighted Shane Duffy could only head it back to Stephen Ireland on the right side of the six-yard box. With the Blues defence now at sizes and sevens, he returned it square to Bent who converted from close range to make it 1-0.

Two minutes later, full League debutant Duffy's sole error of the game almost let Bent in for a second off Ireland's dangerous cross when the young Irishman reacted too slowly but the striker powered his header over Howard's crossbar.

With an hour gone, Drenthe's somewhat disappointing afternoon came to an end and Anichebe was introduced and within six minutes of his introduction had scored the equaliser. Donovan broke quickly down the Everton left before coming inside and, spotting Anichebe's run, he split the defence with a perfectly-weighted pass that the striker slotted home with aplomb.

It looked initially as though Anichebe had crocked himself just three minutes later when his leg buckled underneath him as he tried to keep the ball in play on the touchline but he recovered sufficiently to collect Donovan's ball down the right flank in the 86th minute and drive into the box before forcing a save from Given with a drive from the angle.

Overall, though, neither side really looked likely to win it in the last quarter of an hour and things petered out a little. Moyes threw Diniyar Bilyaletdinov on for the tiring Gibson with seven minutes left and it was Denis Stracqualursi and not Apostolos Vellios who got a late cameo but the final chance to set up a dramatic late winner fell to Cahill. Sadly he let fly with a poor shot from miles out and referee Mark Clattenburg called time on proceedings.

One swallow doesn't make a summer where Anichebe is concerned as he has a long way to go to convince his manager and the supporters that he is any solution to the goal drought afflicting the regular starting strikers. What he did, though, in making the run and executing the finish that secured this point for Everton was demonstrate the kind of movement, anticipation and self-confidence that none of Cahill, Saha or Stracqualursi have showed with any regularity this season.

Like the New Year's Day win at the Hawthorns, this draw provides another potential platform on which Everton can build with a home game against a team struggling against relegation in the form of Blackburn Rovers. The onus is on the manager and players to follow through now with a more confident display than the one that condemned them to consecutive defeats against Bolton and Spurs.

Player Ratings: Howard 7, Neville 6, Duffy 6, Heitinga 6, Baines 6, Gibson 6 (Bilyaletdinov -), Fellaini 6, Drenthe 6 (Anichebe 7), Donovan 7*, Cahill 5, Saha 5 (Stracqualursi -)

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