Villa came from behind twice to steal a point at Goodison Park, after enduring long spells of being second best to an Everton team seemingly unaffected by the sale of Mikel Arteta, or a pre-match protest against Bill Kenwright’s lack of spending as chairman of the club.

It was Leon Osman who opened the scoring for Everton, taking advantage of Everton’s early possession, playing in a make shift partnership up front with Australian talisman Tim Cahill. The two linked up well with Cahill striking a well-worked pass to Osman, who was able to fire a low, left-footed strike under Shay Given.

Stiliyan Petrov then restored parity for Villa around the hour mark with a shot from outside of the box to pull Villa back into a game where many might argue that they were undeserving of.

Villa were again behind after Leighton Baines put Everton in the lead from the penalty spot to offer some degree of fairness to how Everton were dominating the game.

However, it was Gabriel Agbonlahor who was to have the final say on how the points were split, netting a goal seven minutes from the end of the game.

Conclusion

In a game where many Villa fans expected to take advantage of a club in turmoil between player sales and fan unrest with board spending, Villa looked remarkably like second best for large periods of the game, suffering as they were statistically to being the second best side in terms of possession.

In reality however, a point was more than Villa deserved on the evidence of today’s performance, although there should be credit to the fact that the team continued to plug away, coming back from behind on two occasions.

For me, Darren Bent was also lacking today, but was included as per the terms of his contract, which details that if he declares himself fit, he will be in the starting lineup. This is irrespective of form, or fitness. Perhaps some can understand now a little bit as to some of the frustrations of players in the squad, especially those who are strikers, having to contend as they do with these kind of situations.

I hasten to add that I am very pleased with Darren when he plays well, but having a certain degree of immunity to being dropped is not a constructive, or sensible addition to a contract that already had a £5m signing fee inside it. In all situations, regardless of the player, players should be picked on form.

When they are not, this is where problems can occur, and I can only credit the lads in the first team squad for their professionalism even in light of a clear absence of sensible thinking where contracts are concerned.

Kudos to the club for trimming the financial aspects, but if one wants to really compete, clauses such as those in Bent’s contract should not, in reality, ever be anywhere near the club.

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