Aston Villa are still looking for their first league win of the season as they welcome an unbeaten Everton to Villa Park in Friday Night Football.
Victory will see Villa move away from the drop, whilst Everton could go top with all three points ahead of this weekend’s fixtures.
Team news
Embed from Getty ImagesAston Villa have no fresh injury concerns to report ahead of this match as Kortney Hause is available for selection after recovering from an ankle injury.
James Chester (hamstring) and Jonathan Kodjia (ankle) are Villa’s only two absentees.
Everton will have Lucas Digne available after the Frenchman was subbed against Watford with a slight thigh issue.
Fabian Delph (groin) remains sidelined whilst Alex Iwobi and Djibril Sidibe are continuing to be slowly eased into life at Everton so could feature from the bench.
Form
Aston Villa enter this match off the back of consecutive defeats against Tottenham and Bournemouth, despite scoring in both matches.
Everton are unbeaten after Bernard’s tenth minute strike proved the difference against Watford last weekend, having previously drawn their opener at Crystal Palace.
Stat Attack
- Aston Villa have avoided defeat in two of their last eight meetings with Everton (W1, D1, L6).
- Both teams have scored in four of their last five clashes at Villa Park with Villa scoring six goals to Everton’s 11.
- Everton’s last four different goal scorers against Villa in the 2015-16 season have since left the club (Ross Barkley x 2, Romelu Lukaku x3, Aaron Lennon x 1, Ramiro Funes Mori x 1).
- Villa’s Tyrone Mings made 11 headed clearances from his opening two games, with Arsenal’s Sokratis the only other player to have made double digit headed clearances from two matches so far.
- Everton’s Jordan Pickford is the only first-choice goalkeeper yet to concede this season. having kept two clean sheets.
Prediction
I am intrigued by how this game could play out because Villa are a good attacking side who need to learn to work the ball into the box, rather than just try long shots which won’t be enough against a solid Everton defence.
Saying that, Everton haven’t exactly been clinical themselves so far with just one goal from 22 shots, which suggests that we are either in for a tight game or the Toffees will step up their gears and I am leaning towards the latter now that most of the new signings are settled.
Prediction: Aston Villa 0-2 Everton
Result: Aston Villa 2-0 Everton