Villa came out to a roar of expectancy and enthusiasm from the Holte end and when Delfouneso bustled his way through Distan on the bye line things looked good, the attack came to nothing and a minute and a half later, Vlaar failed to close down Pienaar and he punished the mistake by picking out the corner of the net with sublime accuracy and it was all downhill for Villa for the next 70 odd minutes.
Villa seemed to have abandoned the possession football from the opener at West Ham and given was back to hoofing endless kicks to the Everton defenders and the Villa midfield was being over-run by Everton’s.
Lowton was being shown up by Baines down the wing; Clarke for the second week running was diving into challenges needlessly. In the fifth minute he managed play an unforced pass straight to an opponent and followed that up with a horrible looking challenge that earned him only a talking to. Baker was being exposed at left back.
Everton made it two when they broke down the right wing. Bent tracked back but couldn’t prevent Osman’s cross and Fellaini headed right at Given who carried on his European championship form with his 5th blunder in 5 competitive games, by letting the ball bounce off his hands into the net.
He had previously looked shaky on a Gibson effort that just went over the bar.
N’Zogbia had strange run down the left. He had the ball in acres of space, mis controlled it, but still managed to slip by Gibson, he then ran at Neville and turned him inside out, then galloped into the box and pushed the ball too far ahead of himself and the attack failed.
Everton made it 3 when Baines fended off attention from the impressive Chris herd and played the ball in to the middle, Lowton was caught ambling back and didn’t cover allowing Jelavic to rifle in from close range with again given looking less than impressive. I wouldn’t expect him to save it, but he could have got a sniff of it if he had been sharp.
A terrible first half with only Herd and Bannan able to hold their heads high after good performances by the youngsters.
Bent got his first shot of the season in the 56th minute and he almost hit the corner flag with his header and Given made his first meaningful save of the season this time showing strong hands after the shot was directed straight at him.
The good news started for Villa when Clarke who must have had all his skills coached out of him by Houllier and McLeish was rightly sent off for holding back Jelavic when he was through on goal. The Slav made a meal of it, but nothing could have helped Villa more than that red card. Lichaj could come on and we can have a real full back playing full back and Baker turned into Bobby Moore at the back. He now gets 3 games to show his improvement.
Villa finally showed a never care less attitude and as fast as the fans watched the confidence drain out of them in the first 45 minutes it was tremendous to see the confidence pour back with a goal. El Ahmadi played a 1-2 and buried a shot that Howard should have dealt with.
Minutes later Villa was denied a penalty, but it was probably a good thing because had we scored, the fans would have had an unbearable feeling of let down as they would have had the agony of losing a close game that really wasn’t.
El Ahmadi had found his fire from the goal and played like a man possessed. Weimann hit the post in the final minutes, and Bent showed a total lack of poise with the rebound, trying to kick it through a defender instead of taking a quick touch and release.
Given needs to go, Guzan has done nothing wrong and Given has. It isn’t fair that he is in due to reputation.
Lowton isn’t bad, but he has a lot of catching up to do.
Baker isn’t a left back. He is my man of the match just based on those last 30 minutes at CB.
Vlaar. Still a warrior, but isn’t adjusted to our league yet.
Clarke. Make him a defensive midfielder, left back but get him out of CB until he has been trained.
Bannan- Very good fight from him. Sad to see him subbed
El Ahmadi- Will be happy with never hearing the name Naismith again as will all the players as that kid showed them up until he was subbed. Better after his goal.
Herd- The worst part about losing Clarke was that Herd was subbed.
N’Zogbia- Put up shut up. Stop saying you will play better and play better.
Delfouneso- Looked good, but speed and ability is useless if you cannot do basics like judge the flight of a ball
Bent- Superb effort at tracking back with Osman and brilliant clearance off the line, but as a striker, why don’t you watch videos of real strikers like graham at Swansea or disanto at wigan? Think we’ve found Richard Dunne’s replacement as he stinks up front too.
Hollman- Looks like McLeish has the last laugh again.
Lichaj- Decent
Weimann- Quiet, but great job with the shot that hit the post.
Paul Lambert needs 5 players in the next few days, but either way, I believe we shouldn’t panic and I think you’ll get it right.