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Aston Villa vs Everton

Lyndon Lloyd , 13 January, 87comments  |  Jump to most recent
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Crippled by injuries and reeling from back-to-back defeats in the Premier League, Everton play their fifth game in 12 days this weekend when they travel to Villa Park, a ground on which they have recorded just one victory in their last 19 matches.

It's a statistic made a little more dismaying by the nature of that solitary triumph as it was one of the finest attacking displays under David Moyes's tenure. A free-flowing Blues side ran out convincing 3-1 winners seven years ago, with Leon Osman scoring twice and in-form Tim Cahill grabbing one to keep Everton in the fourth-place spot they would ultimately claim at the end of the 2004-05 season.

What Moyes would give for three points let alone three goals as Everton try to lift themselves up from defeats at home to Bolton and away to Tottenham that not only left them in the bottom half of the table but were also costly in terms of personnel. Osman, Phil Jagielka, and Jack Rodwell were all forced off with injury in the first game, while Sylvain Distin tweaked his hamstring at White Hart Lane.

Distin is almost certainly ruled out which means that Shane Duffy, the Frenchman's more-than-capable replacement on Wednesday night, will get his first League start for Everton alongside John Heitinga. Ross Barkley, Tony Hibbert, Jack Rodwell and Seamus Coleman are also likely absentees, meaning Phil Neville will continue at right back and Landon Donovan will line up in midfield.

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The question of whom to deploy in the centre alongside Marouane Fellaini, however, will likely be solved by the arrival of Darron Gibson from Manchester United. The Irish international was signed for an estimated fee of between £500,000 and £1M and will likely go straight into the team to face Villa.

On the left flank, it's got to be most Evertonians' fervent wish that Royston Drenthe be handed his first start of the year after eclipsing the efforts of the team's other forward players with his 22-minute cameo against Spurs the other night. The Dutchman possesses pace and drive like no one else in the Blues' squad but even though he has clearly been working on the defensive side of his game, Moyes seems reticent to play him over 90 minutes.

It's up front where the real problems lie, of course. If Gibson is handed his debut in midfield, Tim Cahill could be moved forward again but with Victor Anichebe having struggled through 68 minutes at Spurs looking uncomfortable and decidedly not up for it, Denis Stracqualursi failing to convince and Louis Saha's confidence at an all-time low, it's hard to see just who should get the nod.

If there's cause for optimism beyond the personnel concerns at Everton it's that Alex McLeish's Villa side are not enjoying a great season themselves. They've lost as many home games as Everton — five — and lie two places below the Blues in the table, albeit with just one point less from 20 games.

McLeish will probably give new loan acquisition, Robbie Keane, his first game after his arrival from LA Galaxy, but he is without Emile Heskey, Carlos Cuellar and Chris Herd.

With Villa having scored just two goals more this season than low-scoring Everton, this one doesn't promise much in the entertainment stakes and the onus will be on the defence to keep it tight and allow some rub of the green or a spark of inspiration at the other end to earn what would be a priceless away victory.

It would be Everton's second win in Birmingham so far this year but in order for it to happen, someone has to score. And therein has been the problem this season.

Another potential problem, of course, is Mark Clattenburg, the controversial referee who will be taking charge of his first match involving Everton since receiving a bollocking in the tunnel by David Moyes after the Merseyside derby of October 2007 that has gone down in Goodison folklore as the "Clattenburg derby".

As Martin Atkinson, his rival for the title of Worst Ref in the Premier League, showed when he turned down a stonewall penalty for the Blues at White Hart Lane, there's no real cause for optimism that Clattenburg will atone in any way for his previous errors.

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