Steven Gerrard’s Aston Villa welcome Everton to Villa Park as both teams chase their first win of 2022-23 Premier League season.
With Villa and Everton having both lost their opening matches, victory would see either team register their first win of the season.
Team News
Tyrone Mings is a doubt for Villa after he suffered a groin injury which saw him sit out their defeat at Bournemouth, despite being named on the substitutes bench for that match.
Kortney Hause remains absent with a knee injury.
Everton will be without Ben Godfrey after he suffered a fractured fibula in last weekend’s loss at home to Chelsea, which has ruled him out until November at earliest.
Tom Davies (unspecified) could return but Andros Townsend (knee), Andre Gomes (unspecified), Yerry Mina (ankle) and Dominic Calvert-Lewin (knee) remain absent.
Amadou Onana and Conor Coady could be in contention for their debuts after joining the Toffees this week.
Stat Attack
- Aston Villa are unbeaten in their last six meetings against Everton (W4, D2).
- Everton have won just one of their last five visits to Villa Park (W1, D1, L3).
- Villa are looking for a third consecutive league victory against Everton for the first time since a four-match winning run between September 1996 – March 1998.
- Steven Gerrard’s Villains have kept just one clean sheet in their last five home matches (W1, D2, L2), which came in a 2-0 win against Norwich in late April 2022.
- Everton have kept just one clean sheet in their last five away matches – 0-0 away draw to Watford in May 2022.
Prediction
Sloppy set-piece defending was the story of Villa’s loss at Bournemouth last weekend because they were just lacklustre in their marking, yet defended well in open play amidst a lack of attacking creativity and finishing touch.
Everton meanwhile had similar defensive issues against Chelsea but more from open play when placed under pressure in their backpasses, yet they looked more comfortable attacking from crosses and set pieces than open play which is quite risky.
Improvement is therefore required here from both teams but if Villa can just hook up their attack and find the finishing touch, I fancy them to just have that edge given their home form against the Toffees who however should have more defensive steel now Coady has arrived.
Prediction: Aston Villa 1-0 Everton
Result: Aston Villa 2-1 Everton
Leave a Reply