Disastrous January continues to drag on Everton’s survival hopes

Everton 0 - 2 Aston Villa

If two wins from three to start Sean Dyche’s reign as Everton manager had offered hope that not only would the Blues survive this season, they might do so fairly comfortably, then this result against Aston Villa will have swept away such fanciful notions.

This bid to stay in the Premier League is going to be a struggle, perhaps a desperate one destined to go down to the wire, with every match and every available point laden with significance. And it’s not because there isn’t heart, desire, spirit and a measure of effectiveness about this Everton team. It’s because it can’t score goals

As a collective, the owner, Board of Directors, Director of Football and recruitment were derelict in their duty to fulfil one basic requirement dating back to the end of last season: buy a suitable striker. Unfortunately, though he doesn’t lack for effort, that isn’t Neal Maupay and wasn’t ever going to be.

Which is why the utter failure to bring in someone more of Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s ilk, compounded by the damaging delay in sacking Frank Lampard when he should have been dismissed on the evening of 3rd January following that debacle against Brighton, is so infuriating. And it’s a twin failing that could yet cost this great club its place in the top flight this season.

Against Aston Villa, a club that acted decisively and early once it became clear that their young, inexperienced and largely unproven manager was out of his depth, the referee, Anthony Taylor, was horrendous; as bad, if not worse than any official with which Everton have been blighted this season. But, ultimately, despite the official’s incompetence and inconsistency, the Blues couldn’t blame him for their defeat, the first at Goodison Park since Dyche took charge.

Indeed, Taylor’s decisions had provided the fuel for an increasingly charged atmosphere on the back of which Everton built some decent pressure in the final quarter of an hour of the first half, but a combination of Emiliano Martinez’s reflexes and a lack of conviction in front of goal meant that the hosts failed to capitalise.

For the second week running, the lack of an effective goalscorer cost the Blues goals and it’s a shortcoming that is going to blight Dyche and his team from now to the end of the season if he isn’t able to come up with another solution. Whether that is restoring Demarai Gray, still the team’s top scorer, to the line-up and bringing Alex Iwobi, it’s most creative outlet off the wing, or putting greater faith in the youth of Ellis Simms, no one can know until the manager tries it. But without goals, this team is going down.

With Calvert-Lewin still ruled out, Dyche named an unchanged line-up from the side that beat Leeds last weekend and they set about their task with tempo and intensity despite a curious early yellow card shown by Taylor to Amadou Onana, seemingly following consultation with VAR Chris Kavanagh.

Everton’s tactic of getting the ball down the left flank to provide service to the centre almost paid dividends in the eighth minute when Iwobi arrived to meet Dwight McNeil’s cross but his shot from close range lacked conviction and Emiliano Martinez was able to make a fairly comfortable save.

Two minutes later, Watkins underlined the threat he posed as he latched onto a ball over the top that left the lead-footed Conor Coady for dead but Jordan Pickford came off his line quickly to make an important block.

Former Everton man, Lucas Digne, swept a direct free-kick over the crossbar in the 13th minute but as the volume and anger from the home crowd grew with every horrendous decision from Taylor and his assistants, the hosts started to build some pressure on Villa’s back line.

Maupay should have hit the target from a corner won by Iwobi but glanced his header wide in the 29th minute and then Martinez had to pull off a magnificent save to deny Onana when the Belgian met Vitalii Mykolenko’s cross and the Argentinian tipped his header over.

On the stroke of half-time, Everton opened Villa up superbly when Iwobi clipped a well-weighted ball behind the defence for McNeil but he elected not to hit it early with his weaker right foot and instead laid up Maupay who could only curl a shot tamely into the keeper’s arms.

10 minutes into the second half, the Toffees thought they had broken the deadlock when Iwobi’s miscued shot ricocheted back off the prone Ezri Konsa and when the ball was played back into the six-yard box, Maupay lunged at the loose ball but didn’t make sufficient contact to force it home and Tyrone Mings hacked it off the line.

Four minutes later, it was James Tarkowki’s turn to hook it clear from under his own crossbar after Digne had got in behind Iwobi and Seamus Coleman, crossed for the unmarked Watkins to head goal-wards but Pickford did brilliantly to claw it onto the post.

Less than two minutes later, however, Buendia’s first contribution after coming off the bench was to prod the ball to John McGinn in the area where Gueye felled him and left referee Taylor with no option but to point to the spot. Watkins made no mistake, rifling his penalty into the roof of Pickford’s net.

Dyche eventually responded by withdrawing one of his most creative players in the form of Iwobi in favour of Gray and then replaced Maupay with Ellis Simms as the young substitute had a decent effort at equalising when he connected with Abdoulaye Doucouré’s cross but couldn’t keep his volley down.

Villa, meanwhile, looked to try and capitalise on Everton’s need to push forward and Douglas Luiz drove over from distance before Buendia killed the contest with Villa’s second.

The midfielder twisted, turned and then easily evaded Coady in the box before rifling a shot inside the near post that gave Pickford no chance.

Tarkowski had a late chance off a corner but headed a couple of feet over and Martinez smothered a free-kick from Gray down by his post but it wasn’t to be for Everton.

The Blues didn’t deserve to lose this match. On another day, if they had scored the first goal, they might well have gone on to win, just as they did against Arsenal and against Leeds. The strategy of feeding the increasingly effective McNeil down the left looked as though it might deliver a goal but without a striker with truly predatory instincts in the middle or someone else in the ranks with the confidence to capitalise on good chances, the chances went begging.

As such, Everton will continue to live or die by fine margins this season and they will need greater fortune than they had today in order to grind out important points. With the likes of West Ham and Leeds winning, results that dumped the Toffees back into the bottom three, games like next weekend’s at the City Ground against Nottingham Forest take on huge significance.

The team’s away record is atrocious but there’s no better time to start improving it under a manager who at least has a plan. There’s enough about this side to get amongst teams and create chances; they just have to believe they can start taking them.

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