At A Glance
Aston Villa and Everton meet for the second time in less than two weeks when they go head-to-head at Villa Park on Thursday evening.
The visiting Villans came out on top in the aforementioned meeting at Goodison Park, winning 2-1, and they’ll be looking to complete the double on home soil.
It’s also a chance for the hosts to get back to winning ways at Villa Park after a second half fightback saw Manchester United leave with all three points on Sunday.
Everton arrive in B6 looking to maintain their charge for European football, which was boosted by a 1-0 away win against West Ham last time out.
The Toffees’ success this season has been built on their strong away form, picking up 36 of their 55 points on their travels.
Carlo Ancelotti’s side have also been stingy at the back during their away trips, conceding only 15 goals in 17 matches.
Standout Stats
Following their 2-1 win against them at the start of the month, Aston Villa are looking to do the league double over Everton for the first time since the 2000-01 campaign.
Everton have won three of their last five away league games against Aston Villa (L2), as many as they had in their previous 29 visits to Villa Park (D12 L14). They did lose this exact fixture 2-0 last season, however.
Aston Villa beat Everton 2-1 on May 1st – victory here will be the second shortest gap between one side beating another in Premier League history (12 days), after Arsenal beat Bolton twice in the space of three days in January 2010.
Aston Villa have won more Premier League games (20) and scored more Premier League goals (73) against Everton than they have vs any other side in the competition.
Everton have won six of their last 11 Premier League meetings with Aston Villa (D2 L3), as many as they had in their previous 39 against them in the competition (D16 L17).
This will be the 224th league meeting between Aston Villa and Everton (all in the top-flight), extending it’s record as the most played match in English league history.
Aston Villa are winless in their six midweek Premier League matches this season (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday), drawing one and losing the last five. Their last such victory came at home against Arsenal in July 2020.
Everton have won their last five away midweek Premier League games (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday), last losing at Manchester City on New Year’s Day 2020.
Everton manager Carlo Ancelotti has won just one of his six Premier League games against Aston Villa (D3 L2) – against no side does he have a lower win rate in the competition (17%, min. 5 meetings).
Dominic Calvert-Lewin has scored 16 league goals this season; the joint-most by an English player for Everton in a single Premier League campaign (along with Tony Cottee in 1993-94). Indeed, Romelu Lukaku is the only player to have netted more in a Premier League season for the Toffees (18 in 2015-16 and 25 in 2016-17).
The Last Meeting
A beautiful curling effort from Anwar El Ghazi was a worthy winner when the sides met at the start of May.
Ollie Watkins had handed Villa the perfect start to the match, capitalising on some slack defending.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin levelled for the hosts before El Ghazi’s late stunner.
Team News
Dean Smith said on Wednesday that he is yet to make a decision on whether Jack Grealish will be available for the game.
Morgan Sanson and Trezeguet remain out.
For Everton, James Rodriguez was due to return to training this week, while Jean-Philippe Gbamin and Yerry Mina are sidelined for the clash.
The Boss
“They’re a very good team with very good players and a very good coach. We were very good on the night when we played them last. We have to make sure that our performance levels are like that again and similar to what we did in the first half against Manchester United. Our performance levels on that day [a 2-1 win at Goodison Park], our concentration levels, our discipline was really good, and we have to do that again.”
Dean Smith
