WESLEY’S WORTH WEIGHT IN GOALS
Record signing Wesley is goal hero for happy Villa
DX1ST WESLEY scored a superb goal as Aston Villa finally got their Premier League return up and running.
After two defeats from their opening two games back at the top table, Villa’s club-record signing struck in the 21st minute then Anwar El Ghazi wrapped it up in added time.
ON A night of firsts, Wesley got off the mark for Aston Villa to give Dean Smith’s men their opening win on their Premier League return.
Wesley scored his first goal since his record £22million summer switch from Club Brugge to silence his critics and earn Villa their first top-flight victory since February 2016.
The Brazil striker also condemned Everton to their first defeat of the campaign, ending their bright start under Marco Silva.
After the agony of Saturday’s loss to Bournemouth, this was the return Smith’s side had hoped for atVilla Park.
They recovered from a slow start to take control against Everton and fully deserved to end their 15-game winless run in the top flight.
Everton, by contrast, were disappointing. Silva expected much more and will ask questions why they never got going.
This is the most-played fixture in English football and last night’s game was the 203rd encounter since these two grandees first met in September 1888.
Everton began intent on chalking up a 77th win against Villa as Richarlison threatened with a shot which was deflected just wide.
The Brazil striker also went down in the box under a challenge from Jack Grealish, but referee Michael Oliver was unimpressed.
Villa spluttered like a learner driver, their confidence dented by losing their opening two games, before they burst into life to open the scoring on 21 minutes with a slick move.
Grealish took a quick freekick to debutant Frederic Guilbert. The French defender fed Jota, who played in for Wesley to fire home his first Villa goal, having cleverly peeled off centre-half Michael Keane to create space.
Everton were left reeling at seeing Jordan Pickford beaten for the first time this season and Wesley muscled his way through again, only to be denied by Yerry Mina.
The Toffees were a shadow of the side who had lost only one of their previous 10 games.
Everton could not make any impression and, just after the hour, Silva made a double change. He brought on Alex Iwobi and Moise Kean in the hope they could offer a spark.
Kean did get his head to a long throw, but his effort was saved by Tom Heaton.
Iwobi then had an effort saved by Heaton before Theo Walcott missed a great late chance. Anwar El Ghazi then put the game beyond Everton with a late second goal.