WHAT A CAMEO
Smith hails ‘special talent’ Bailey after sub’s electric 19 minutes
FOR an hour Villa were doing so much right and yet the most important thing wrong.
Time and again they got cold feet in the final third. They had the movement, the energy, the verve, the ideas, but their decision-making continued to give this patched up Everton side belief that there unbeaten start would roll on for another week.
And yet in the space of two minutes Everton’s hope was extinguished, Villa were 2-0 up, out of sight and fingers were being pointed at Lucas Digne.
The first saw the attacking fullback caught too high and in raced Matty Cash to rifle in for his first Villa goal.
Less than two minutes later the French defender was looking to the heavens having headed into his own net from Leon Bailey’s corner. He looked like he wanted Villa Park to swallow him up.
Bailey would add a third, his first in a Villa shirt since joining from Bayer Leverkusen for £25million, before dedicating it to Steffie Gregg, a Jamaican social media influencer who was the daughter of the former race car driver Gary Gregg.
He lasted only 19 minutes after coming on as a substitute, injury striking him down because he struck his goal so hard, he later revealed, but his presence dramatically changed this game. ‘He’s really special, a really good player and that’s why we got him here,’ Dean Smith, the Villa manager, said. ‘He’s a good lad, the lads love him. He’s really humble.’
From an Everton perspective this was all about Digne and the uncharacteristic defensive collapse that is so rare to find in a Rafael Benitezled side. Digne has Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain on his CV but this was two costly mistakes, the first one to let Cash through in particular.
Before a ball was kicked Benitez was scribbling away in his notebook. It is rarely away from his suit jacket pocket or his hand. By the end he could have written an entire thesis on the mistakes made in the second half.
He would have been forgiven for arriving anxious, given he was without Jordan Pickford and Richarlison, both feeling the effects of tackles from Burnley on Monday, as well as Seamus Coleman, injured in training. Add in that Everton are still without Dominic Calvert-Lewin and those filtering through the Holte End turnstiles sensed an opportunity.
So short are Everton right now that they named just eight of their allocated nine substitutes. The curious case of James Rodriguez, who has been fit to train but was not in the squad, goes on.
‘We started with h too many problems but the team was fighting well,’ Benitez said. ‘We made mistakes too soon, too early, too close and it is difficult to react. Hopefully we can n manage that in the he future.’
An injury to one player equals opportunity for another and Asmir Begovic, starting a Premier League game for the first time since April 6, 2019, was thrust into the line-up.
For Villa it was a more familiar face between the posts in Emi Martinez, who arrived from Croatia yesterday morning hours before the game having been forced to serve out quarantine after his Covid-fiasco trip to Argentina. It was Begovic who was busier early on, Villa keen to test him with the crowd needing no invitation to whip up a frenzy behind his goal. Five minutes had elapsed when Tyrone Mings got across his marker at the near ne post to connect with Douglas D Luiz’s corner. Mings caught it flush flu and his arms were ready to rise in celebration, only for Begovic’s catlike reflexes to kick in as he pushed the ball onto the bar. Villa pressed on, keen to hunt Ben Godfrey, in for the injured Coleman at right back, and this time a well-worked free-kick was a lick away.
A long diagonal from left to right picked out Ezri Konsa at the back post and he smartly nodded back for centre back partner Mings, who in turn cushioned a header for Danny Ings to strike over.
Benitez rarely wanted to take his seat so keen was he to coach his players as much as he could through the game. Salomon Rondon, making his first Premier League appearance for Everton and his first in this division since May 2019, was being moved around by his manager like a kid with a video game joystick.
What Villa found tricky was keeping Andros Townsend and Demarai Gray quiet. They are not alone in that but the two wingers are like Duracell bunnies for Benitez and Everton, seemingly possessing boundless energy.
Gray, booed on every touch by the home support as an ex-Birmingham player, did brilliantly early on and it was his miss 60 seconds before Cash’s strike that will come back to haunt Everton.
Games as cagey as this are often down to sliding doors moments. Gray flashes his shot wide, long goal kick and seconds later it is 1-0. Plenty for Benitez to re-read in that trusted notebook.
ASTON VILLA (3-1-4-2): Martinez 6.5; Konsa 7.5, Mings 7, Tuanzebe 6; Luiz 7; Cash 8 (Traore 86min), McGinn 5 (Nakamba 39, 6), Ramsey 6, Targett 6.5 (Bailey 61, 7.5, Young 81); Ings 7.5, Watkins 7. Booked: Bailey. Subs (not used): Steer, Hause, Buendia, El Ghazi, Archer.
EVERTON (4-2-3-1): Begovic 7.5; Godfrey 5 (Kenny 80), Mina 6, Keane 6, Digne 4; Doucoure 7, Allan 6 (Gordon 72); Townsend 6.5, Gray 6, Iwobi 5.5 (Davies 81); Rondon 6 (Gomes 63, 6). Booked: Godfrey. Subs (not used): Lonergan, Holgate, Branthwaite, Simms.
Referee: C Pawson (South Yorkshire) 7.