Aston Villa 0-0 Everton

Aston Villa and Everton shared a goalless draw at Villa Park as Jack Grealish made his long-awaited return from injury.

In an encounter of few clear-cut opportunities at Villa Park, Tyrone Mings headed wide a good opening from six yards in the first half before Emi Martinez made a superb late save to deny Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

Influential playmaker Grealish was introduced as a 72^nd-minute substitute for his first appearance since mid-February having missed the club’s previous 12 fixtures.

The draw, which comes just 12 days after victory in the reverse fixture at Goodison Park, takes Dean Smith's side on to 49 points – the highest tally since 2009/10 when the club finished sixth in the Premier League.

And the hard-fought clean sheet, Villa's 15th in the top flight this season, sees Martinez draw level with Brad Friedel's club record from the same season.

Villa, 11^th in the table, now travel to Crystal Palace on Sunday for as they embark on their final three fixtures of the campaign.

Head coach Smith made one change to his starting XI from last weekend’s 3-1 defeat to Manchester United, Keinan Davis coming in for his first league start of the season to replace the previously ever-present Ollie Watkins, who missed out due to suspension.

In what was the 206^th league meeting between the two clubs, Bertrand Traore enjoyed the game’s first effort on target after 11 minutes.

The first golden chance fell the way of Mings after 17 minutes, however he could only head wide from six yards after Douglas Luiz had recycled Ross Barkley’s corner.

Anwar El Ghazi fired off target while Gylfi Sigurdsson sent a free-kick straight at Martinez at the other end on the half-hour mark.

Lucas Digne’s deep cross narrowly evaded Calvert-Lewin, although the final action of the first half saw an injured Matty Cash hobble off to be replaced by Ahmed Elmohamady.

Martinez was alert to save well from Ben Godfrey shortly after the restart, before Jordan Pickford parried El Ghazi’s free-kick to safety.

Mason Holgate headed straight at Martinez and, after Jacob Ramsey was introduced for the hosts, fellow substitute Andre Gomes sent a good opening over the crossbar from the edge of the penalty.

Fit-again Grealish made his return off the bench and was immediately in the middle of the action as Villa searched for a breakthrough.

But it was Martinez who preserved the point with a great save in the 87th minute to keep out Calvert-Lewin's header from Digne's cross.