Bailey helps break Benitez’s unbeaten run
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 their unbeaten start would go 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 full-back 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.
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.
Bailey lasted only 20 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,’ said Villa manager Dean Smith. ‘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 Benitez-led side. Digne has Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain on his CV but these were two costly mistakes.
Benetiz 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 CalvertLewin 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 too many problems but the team was fighting well,’ said Benitez. ‘We made mistakes too soon, too early, too close and it is difficult to react.’