The Toffees Did Not Entirely Melt!

Everton is always welcome to Villa Park, but mainly for the reason that we generally meet them early in the season at Villa Park and get a good result from their visit to get the season rolling! 

On this occasion we had the peculiarity of our left-back conceding an own-goal, as he also did for Everton against us while still with them last season! A peculiar double.

And in fact my criticism of the Villa this week begins with Digne. I still find it hard to see a better player than Targett in him, though I admit that at the end of last season he was beginning to make a difference. What has happened since? Is this down to new tactics being played by Villa?

In fact, last week's slow and dogged performance going forward seemed to be replicated today to some degree. It could have been the heat that was at least partly to blame, but where was the Coutinho imagination to stimulate interest in the game? I did see one neat flick to create a path in the penalty area for a Villa player, but precious little else besides. But when Buendia comes on it's a different game, and although Watkins was officially given credit for his assist for Buendia's goal, it was Buendia himself who strove forward to release Watkins, who repaid the compliment.

Today's performance from Villa was 'better', but when we take into account Everton's capability - which I estimate as mid-table - it does not auger well for Villa's pretensions as a top-6 side. There appears to be a lot of work to be done before a top-6 position can be achieved.

However, as Villa have at least won this one, perhaps we should accept that Villa may be just getting used to new players and a full-scale 'Gerrard Approach'. All that may not pay dividends very quickly.

In terms of other differences to last week, I felt that the defence looked better with Mings back (though he was not perfect), and for much of the match, they kept Everton at bay. And Chambers again demonstrated that he is a real player, coming on late but still providing the concentration to provide a superlative block to prevent Everton from equalising.

Watkins also provided much positivity going forward, but again at the vital moment, a wrongly judged touch on the ball took him away from a more clear scoring chance.

Well, bring on the next match and let's see what happens. I for one will be expecting to see some improvement match-on-match to convince me that life under Gerrard is viable at Villa Park.

UTV!