That wasn’t exactly how you’d script a home opener for Paul Lambert’s reign at Villa Park.
After last week’s West Ham defeat, Paul Lambert made changes, going to what looked like a 4-4-1-1, with Delfouneso, Herd, and Bannan all making appearances in place of Weimann, Holman/Gardner, Stephen Ireland and Fabian Delph.
It didn’t work. One win in 18 games, now.
Everton, brimming with confidence, struck quickly via Steven Pienaar at two minutes, and never looked back. In a neatly worked move, Villa didn’t close Pienaar down quickly enough, leaving too much space and time at the edge of the box and were punished with an excellent strike.
While Villa seemed to come more into the game around the 15-minute mark, it wasn’t enough. The same old issues would soon make themselves apparent. Everton had too much space and time, better movement on and off the ball, better, quicker passing, and more pressure. With eight goal attempts to Villa’s one, five shots on goal to Villa’s one (which came only in the 45th minute), and 67% of the possession, there wasn’t much for Villa to point to.
Fellaini scored Everton’s second after a first-time cross found him splitting the CBs, and Clark unable to do enough to put him off. Given should likely have done better, getting to the ball, but failing to keep it out as it squirted away from him and into the net. Game over, really.
Everton’s third again saw Villa second best to the ball, with Jelavic peeling back to be found with a nice cut-back ball from Leighton Baines, who was excellent and threatening all match, and first-timing it neatly past Given at the near post. No one picked up Jelavic’s clever little run.
Villa, for their part, were sitting off, playing too deep, resorting to long balls to find Bent, and not much of anything was coming off. Perhaps they were shell-shocked by the Toffee’s early goal. They clearly weren’t cohesive. Charles N’Zogbia provided the only real spark apart from Nathan Delfouneso’s early run, but it was nowhere near enough.
Down 0-3 at halftime, Lambert had his work cut out for him, and replaced Delfouneso with Brett Holman to start the second 45. But Everton were all over Villa from the whistle, Nathan Baker denying Jelavic.
Bannan’s attempt at 52 minutes was charged down, showing the difference between Everton and Villa’s reactions to the ball around the box.
It seemingly went from bad to worse at 58 minutes when Ciaran Clark was sent off. Herd was subsequently replaced by Eric Lichaj. Damage control seemed to be the intent. Everton already looked like they had more players on the pitch without actually having more men on the pitch.
Given made a good save at 62 minutes to deny Pienaar, yet Darren Bent had to intervene on the goal-line to put Sylvain Distain’s effort onto crossbar on the following corner.
Disaster was averted at 65 minutes when a penalty wasn’t awarded to Baines. Weimann replaced Bannan at 70 minutes. El Ahmadi salvaged some pride and belief at 74 minutes with a wonderful, curving long-range strike to pull one back and notch the first goal of Paul Lambert’s reign. Villa subsequently started showing some fight. A penalty shout was ignored, but I’ve seen them given for less.
In the 87th minute, Mirallas was on the end of another well-worked move that cut Villa apart, but was blessedly called offside when he netted.
A beautiful move from Villa in the 89th minute, their best of the match, saw Weimann hit the post when he looked certain to score. CNZ slotted Holman through nicely in the 93rd minute, but Holman’s sliced shot flashed across the goal.
Positives? Vlaar is looking good. CNZ had a couple moments, and Villa seemed to find some fighting spirit after Clark’s sending off, finishing the game much better than they’d started it. We did score, and perhaps could’ve salvaged a more respectable result. And perhaps we did finish in a manner that’s encouraging.
Of course, Everton had the game in hand and had taken off Jelavic for for Heitinga, signaling that they were confident enough they’d done enough to win.
Negatives? Going 3-0 down in the first half…well, they were all too apparent. Villa were comprehensively outplayed when it counted. Villa finished with only four attempts on target and three off, while Everton had 11 attempts on target and eight off. A ratio of 19-7 isn’t what you want to see. We did finish with a little better percentage of possession than during Everton’s first-half dominance, but it made no difference.
Lambert definitely has his work cut out for him, and perhaps Lerner will see that Villa likely could do with another couple players, though I don’t think it’s been Lerner necessarily standing in the way of anything. While Chris Herd made several vital blocks, Villa were outflanked most of the match, seemingly unable to cut out crosses and overlapping runs, never mind the late midfield runs. And Darren Bent once again cut an isolated figure, and again I’m left to wonder if he can work with what we’ve got.
It will be more than interesting to see what Lambert can do this week with Tranmere then Newcastle on the horizon.
Just as important, what did you make of it?
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