Aston Villa 2 – 0 Everton
Aston Villa got their Premier League season up and running winning a tough game 2-0 against an Everton team that hadn’t conceded this season. A goal in either half scored by Wesley and El Ghazi sealed the victory for the home team. Wesley’s first goal at Villa Park came from a sublime through ball into the penalty area from Jota leaving the big striker to slot the ball past Pickford. El Ghazi’s goal came from a breakaway following mounting pressure from Everton in the 95th minute effectively sealing the tie.
Dean Smith made 2 changes to the team narrowly defeated by Bournemouth the week before with Jota replacing the ineffective El Ghazi and Guilbert in for Elmohamady. The right-side pairing re-establishing a partnership that had worked well in the pre-season friendlies.
Everton began the better of the two teams taking early control of the game especially down their left-hand side, Guilbert getting himself booked after only 5 minutes. Villa also survived a penalty scare in the 6th minute when Richarlison went down pretty easily in the box under pressure from Grealish. However, Villa gradually started to see more of the ball. The goal came from a quickly taken free-kick by Grealish to Jota who waited for Wesley to make his move, the timing and the pass were impeccable leaving Wesley free to score.
5 minutes later the Villans almost carved open the Everton defence again with a very similar move to the first, only for Mina to block the shot. Everton also had their chances in the first half only to see Mings and Engels block any attempts.
Embed from Getty ImagesHalf Time: Aston Villa 1 – 0 Everton
The second half began fairly evenly with both teams having half chances. With half an hour to go Everton made some attacking changes with Iwobi and Kean replacing Sigurdsson and Bernard. Everton had more possession of the ball, but failed to create any real chances, the Villa defence looking rock solid. Everton added a third attacker in the form of Walcott, the move almost paying dividends with Iwobi hitting the post. Walcott also missed a golden opportunity to level the match in the 90th minute shooting over from 6 yards out.
With Everton pushing forward, a long ball was sent to Wesley, who Carried the ball forward before passing to McGinn. McGinn fed the ball through to El Ghazi (on for Trezeguet) to slot home under Pickford leaving the Villa Park faithful jubilant.
Teams:
Aston Villa: Heaton, Taylor, Mings, Engels, Guilbert🟨, Luiz, McGinn, Grealish, Trézéguet🟨 (El Mohamady), Jota (El Ghazi⚽️), Wesley⚽️
Everton: Pickford, Keane, Digne, Mina, Coleman🟨, Richarlison (Walcott), Sigurdsson (Iwobi), Schneiderlin, Bernard (kean), Gomes🟨, Calvert-Lewin🟨