Everton lay down a marker with tenacious cup win at Villa

Aston Villa 1 - 2 Everton

There were many war-weary Evertonians, all too aware of their club’s history in this competition and all too accustomed to defeats in the early rounds, who greeted the draw for the third round of the Carabao Cup with a resigned shrug. After all, it came 10 days after the Blues had been taken apart at Villa Park on the back of the kind of performance that seemed to spell another long struggle against relegation this season and precious little optimism for a strong cup run.

The more optimistic and defiant no doubt saw this as a chance for Everton to gain fairly swift revenge for their 4-0 drubbing at Aston Villa’s hands in August and it was one that Sean Dyche’s men grabbed with both hands with arguably their strongest display since dismantling Brighton at the Amex Stadium last May.

Taking heart from Saturday’s fine win at Brentford, Everton smothered Villa at times for the first hour of this game, harrying, pressing and forcing mistakes from their hosts and Unai Emery, whose team had won 10 straight at home before this evening, could have had few complaints if the tie had effectively been over by the halfway stage.

It surely would have been had John McGinn been spared the ignominy of an own goal six minutes before the interval and Dominic Calvert-Lewin shown more composure with a finish to a gilt-edged chance a minute after that.

As it was, the striker, who was making his first start since fracturing his cheekbone in the previous meeting with the Villans five weeks ago, found all the poise he needed five minutes into the second half to comfortably slot past former team-mate Robin Olsen and score what proved to be the winner that handed Everton an unlikely fourth-round berth.

There have been times over the past year where the Toffees have looked utterly bereft of organisation, talent and belief and not only destined for the Championship but deserving of relegation. At other moments they have had to draw on every last reserve of spirit and determination to grind out the results required to keep them in the Premier League.

And there have been others — depressingly fleeting — like at Brighton and against Crystal Palace at the high watermark of Frank Lampard’s time at the club where Everton have actually looked impressive and an appreciable sum of the parts that have been assembled by nine different managers over the past decade.

Tonight was one of those moments that swept away any excuses the players might have had for their abject showing on this ground earlier this season, their brush with humiliation at Doncaster in the previous round, and for their incomprehensibly impotent display against Arsenal 10 days ago. It set the benchmark for how the side should approach teams away from home and laid down a marker that says Everton should be nowhere near the bottom three come May, assuming their shallow squad isn’t hit by a crippling injury crisis along the way.

It also raises hopes that the Blues could go deep into a competition they have never won, particularly as should they progress past Burnley in the fourth round, there will be a maximum of six top-flight teams left in the competition and Manchester City won’t be one of them!

Dyche, taking charge of his 500th game as a manager, may not have had many options open to him in terms of wholesale changes to the side that had won at Brentford on Saturday but he handed Jack Harrison a very strong debut on the right flank, started Calvert-Lewin and Arnaut Danjuma in attack while resting Dwight McNeil, Idrissa Gueye and Ashley Young by deploying a five-man back line with Nathan Patterson at right wing-back and Michael Keane among the centre-halves.

Villa would have the first sight of goal when Youri Tielemans flashed a half-volley just over from 20 yards out but the hosts soon found it difficult to handle the intensity from Everton.

And when a clutch of Blue shirts hassled the Villans’ defence into giving the ball away on the edge of their box and Danjuma and Calvert-Lewin kept the ball alive with headers, Amadou Onana put James Garner into space with a sumptuous reverse pass that the former Manchester United winger thumped past Robin Olsen with a fine left-foot finish.

Keane’s poor pass wasn’t punished when the resulting through-ball was too heavy for Moussa Diaby and Jarrad Branthwaite did well to mop up ahead of the Villa midfielder a few minutes later as Everton comfortably kept Emery’s outfit at bay, often keeping them hemmed into their own half for long passages of play.

The would restrict Villa to zero shots on target in the first half while dominating the chances at the other end, first when Garner’s ambitious effort that flew wide from distance and then when Danjuma fired goalwards and saw his shot deflect off Ezri Konsa to Olsen seven minutes before the break.

The Toffees could and probably should have gone into half-time two goals to the good but Villa benefitted from a huge slice of luck and then some profligate finishing from Calvert-Lewin.

In the first instance, Danjuma had pressured Konsa into giving the ball away near his own goalmouth, had his shot blocked by Pau Torres and it ended with John McGinn hacking wildly at it as it flew across the six-yard box and Olsen had to turn it onto the post.

Seconds later, brilliant work on the flank from Harrison saw him release Calvert-Lewin with a lovely defence-splitting ball but Olsen was equal to the initial shot shot from the striker who could only put the rebound from a tight angle into the side-netting.

After Everton had gone close from a corner early in the second period, Calvert-Lewin would make no mistake when handed another gilt-edge chance to extend the lead. Tielemans sold Konsa horribly short with an attempted pass in the centre-circle and Calvert-Lewin stole it, sprinting away with just the keeper to beat which he did with aplomb.

The home side were almost back in the tie straight away when Tielemans played Diaby in behind the Blues’ defence but Jordan Pickford made a smart save with his right foot to divert the shot safety while, back down the other end, Onana raked a shot just over from 25 yards and Olsen did well to parry away Calvert-Lewin’s drive after the striker had again been freed into space in Villa’s half by Danjuma.

A flurry of changes by both managers disrupted the flow of the contest somewhat and Everton began to get a little less diligent with their retention of the ball but it wasn’t until the 82nd minute that Emery’s men tried to threaten Pickford’s goal again.

Matty Cash blazed wide from wide on the Villa right but a minute later after a corner was only cleared as far as substitute Boubacary Kamara, the midfielder despatched a low shot through a forest of legs from outside the area that took a decisive knick off Keane, wrong-footing Pickford and then rolling into the net to make it 2-1.

Beto, on for Calvert-Lewin in a 72nd-minute switch, might have sealed it as he galloped forward but was eventually out-muscled by Konsa but while Villa thought they had come close to forcing penalties with a cleverly-worked free-kick in the 90th minute, Pickford was equal to Diaby’s left-foot strike and beat it away to safety.

Douglas Luiz had one last chance to level in stoppage time but hooked the ball over the bar and Everton successfully saw out the remaining couple of minutes to secure both their second away win in four days but also a place in the next round.

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