Aug 27

Squad sheets: Aston Villa v Everton

Kevin MacDonald says he is still unsure whether or not he is interested in the Aston Villa job but the way results are going the decision is likely to be taken out of his hands. Villa’s exit from the Europa League, which came on the back of a six-goal mauling at Newcastle, means that victory is imperative to try and lift the air of gloom which has descended on Villa Park. Everton, with just one point from their opening two games, have an injury doubt in captain Phil Neville, while Joseph Yobo and Yakubu Ayegbeni are out. Evan Fanning

Venue Villa Park, Sunday 4pm

Tickets £23-38 (0800 612 0970 )

Last season Aston Villa 2 Everton 2

Referee M Jones

This season’s matches 1 Y1, R0, 1.00 cards per game

Odds Aston Villa 8-5 Everton 2-1 Draw 23-10

Aston Villa

Subs from Guzan, Beye, Cuéllar, Agbonlahor, Heskey, Delfouneso, Lichaj, Reo-Coker, Clark, Davies, Bannan

Doubtful Agbonlahor (calf), Carew (knee), Dunne (back)

Injured Sidwell (achilles, 11 Sep), Weimann (ankle, 11 Sep), Delph (knee, Jan)

Suspended None

Form guide LW

Disciplinary record Y2 R0

Leading scorers Downing, Petrov 1

Everton

Subs from Mucha, Turner, Fellaini, Saha, Neville, Bilyaletdinov, Osman, Vaughan, Gueye, Coleman, Baxter, Garbutt, Duffy, Agard

Doubtful Neville (foot)

Injured Anichebe (knee, 12 Sep), Yakubu (illness, 12 Sep), Yobo (thigh, 12 Sep)

Suspended None

Form guide DL

Disciplinary record Y2 R0

Leading scorer Cahill 1

Match pointers

• This is the most-played fixture in the English top flight with the teams meeting for the 191st time on Sunday

• Everton have won once in the league at Villa in their 22 visits since 1987 – 3-1 in February 2005

• Despite taking a penalty, John Carew is yet to get any of his eight shots in the league on target this season

• Five of the last seven league meetings between these sides have ended in a score draw

• Tim Cahill has scored four goals in his last four games against Villa in all competitions

Premier LeagueAston VillaEvertonguardian.co.uk

No Comments | Tags: , , ,
Aug 22

Wolves’ Sylvan Ebanks-Blake ensures another false start for Everton

• Home side booed off after Wolves nearly snatch win
• ‘One point from two games not good enough’ – Mikel Arteta

Everton’s rich history is now told in a continuous seam of panels around Goodison Park, from their formation in 1878 to the present day. 2011, they hope, will record the first trophy of David Moyes’s reign and a season befitting the club’s finest squad since the 1987 panel showing Kevin Ratcliffe with the league title. So far it would simply read: ‘another false start’.

The ‘Everton Timeline’ – as it is called – is certainly effective, as collisions between fans with their eyes fixed sideways and general astonishment at the inclusion of a picture of Nick Barmby testified on Saturday. The Everton team is not. Early days, of course, yet already Moyes’s side are struggling with the weight of expectation and have only themselves to blame for trailing the leading pack once again.

Frustration is settling in on the campaign where under-achievement will be less tolerated. “Two games and only one point is not good enough for us,” Mikel Arteta admitted. “We need to start winning and getting points because there are big teams ahead of us who are winning.”

By contrast Wolves are progressing according to plan. Mick McCarthy spent big this summer in the context of Molineux’s recent history and in comparison with many Premier League peers. He was without two players acquired to push Wolves further away from trouble this season, Steven Fletcher and Stephen Hunt, but that target looked comfortably attainable without them here.

That McCarthy’s team were well-drilled, unyielding and resilient was no surprise to Everton, who dominated first-half possession but lacked the guile or finishing touch to make immediate amends for their opening day defeat at Ewood Park. But they were subdued far too easily by Wolves’ desire to take the game to their hosts after the break.

The introduction of the Algeria international midfielder Adlène Guedioura for George Elokobi, the left-back, gave Karl Henry the added bite required to wrest control of midfield. Indeed the visitors rightly sensed victory once Sylvan Ebanks-Blake converted a fine counterattack to equalise with 15 minutes remaining. Only desperate blocks on Matthew Jarvis by Everton’s central defenders, Sylvain Distin and Phil Jagielka, prevented their second successive 2-1 win.

McCarthy, who blamed himself for Wolves’ first-half retreat, said: “We could have been out of sight in the first half but we defended really well in front of Marcus Hahnemann. Marcus didn’t have much to do but the back four, the midfield and the front two were all bollocksed with all the work they had to do.”

Everton’s performance petered out towards the inevitable boos on the final whistle. Whether injury-plagued, fully fit, complete with new signings or soldiering on without, they have struggled to hit the ground settled or running under Moyes. With Aston Villa and Manchester United to come in the Premier League, they needed another of their belligerent responses to keep this season’s aspirations intact.

The sum total of their dominance in the opening period was a sliced Diniyar Bilyaletdinov shot, a save by Hahnemann from Johnny Heitinga, a close shave from Steven Pienaar and, finally, after the referee Lee Mason somehow failed to award a penalty for a foul by Stephen Ward on Arteta, a scrambled goal from Tim Cahill from the subsequent free-kick. Controversy surrounded both goals, with Wolves appealing for a foul by Cahill on Jody Craddock and Everton likewise when Guedioura caught Heitinga in a 50-50 challenge before Ebanks-Blake levelled.

It was instructive that Moyes refused to give the benefit of the doubt to his players, preferring instead to question Heitinga’s commitment to the tackle and the lazy loss of possession by Louis Saha that demonstrated why he was demoted to the bench in the first place. The Everton manager said: “We were on the attack but we got involved in overdoing it with one-touch passes. We shouldn’t have had to make the tackle but I still would have hoped we’d have come out with the ball.”

The afternoon was uninformative for Fabio Capello, with Phil Jagielka and Leighton Baines subdued and Jack Rodwell strangely left on the bench throughout. In the absence of outstanding homegrown talent it was left to Arteta to admit that, now he is eligible for British citizenship, England is a possibility. “If one day the opportunity comes obviously I would have to consider it very seriously,” said the Spaniard. Not on current form.

Premier LeagueEvertonWolverhampton WanderersAndy Hunterguardian.co.uk

No Comments | Tags: , , , , ,
Aug 15

David Moyes reads riot act after sloppy Everton bow to Blackburn

• Tim Howard’s blunder ends Everton’s long unbeaten run
• Nikola Kalinic sheds puppy fat to become lean and mean

So intense is the battle for the top four expected to be this Premier League season that on its eve the learned campaigners Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsène Wenger both put forward Everton as potential gatecrashers. Not on the evidence presented at Ewood Park, however, and David Moyes acknowledged as much.

Such was their vibrancy at the end of 2009-10 – including a sumptuous and rare away victory on this very turf – that Everton would not have wanted the season to end. Unbeaten in their final 11 matches, momentum was clearly with the blue half of the Merseyside divide.

Yet despite the return of recuperated limbs, which has them at optimum strength, Everton hit a buffer upon the top-flight’s resumption and the club’s longest sequence without defeat for 24 years was terminated when Nikola Kalinic’s predatory instinct exposed Tim Howard’s clanger for the only goal.

There were still 76 minutes remaining for Everton to muster a response and failure to do so irked Moyes most. Their attacking play, awesome in April, was abject in August. Of suggestions they can mount a serious challenge akin to Tottenham’s monopoly-busting campaign of last year, Moyes said: “I think we can be but not on this performance and I have let the players know. I’m setting the bar really high. It wasn’t what I wanted and it wasn’t enough. We didn’t show enough invention going forward and our play was too sloppy.

“I don’t think anyone can say we deserved to lose but the point of the matter is that we didn’t do enough and I want my team to go out to win. What it reminds you of is that whoever you play in the Premier League you are going to have a hard task.”

Winning at venues such as Blackburn and Stoke are, as Spurs discovered last season, what Champions League qualifications are made of. But a lack of fluency, significantly contributed to by Blackburn’s robust harrying in central areas, ensured Everton began their quest with a setback.

“Expectations are good, it’s what we have wanted so we can’t complain about them being higher now,” the captain, Phil Neville, said. “We wanted a big squad, we wanted two players for every position and now we have it we can’t go into our shell and become fearful. We have to show our mettle and whether we have what it takes to get into that top four.

“There’s a lot of disappointment in that dressing room – we wanted to start with a good result and this is a kick in the teeth.”

Blackburn might have been in front inside two minutes when Morten Gamst Pedersen’s cute ball allowed Martin Olsson to beat the offside trap, but his chip cleared the onrushing Howard and the crossbar.

In a game of few chances, the hosts also missed the best: Steven Nzonzi and Ryan Nelsen both off-target when unmarked in the second half. Sam Allardyce’s team tenaciously clung to what they had, however, and although ruffled in the final quarter-hour, when Phil Jagielka’s long-ranger was palmed out by Paul Robinson and substitute Diniyar Bilyaletdinov thrice flirted with the goal during a goalmouth scramble, secured three points thanks to their new-look Croat. Kalinic, 22, now cuts quite a contrasting figure to the spindly £6m striker snapped up from Hajduk Split last summer.

“Strength-wise we’ve done core weights with him ever since he’s been here,” Allardyce said. “He was like a little boy when he first came, with rolls of puppy fat on him. We’ve tried to turn him into a man and you can see that physical presence now.”

Man of the match Phil Jones (Blackburn)

Premier LeagueBlackburn RoversEvertonRichard Gibsonguardian.co.uk

No Comments | Tags: , , , , , , ,
« Previous Page