Aston Villa hosted Everton at Villa Park on Saturday on the 2nd day of the Premier League 2022/23. Aston Villa defeated Everton 2-1 to clinch their first victory of the season. Danny Ings and Emi Buendia scored a goal apiece to hand Lampard his second loss in two games. However, a late own goal by Lucas Digne handed Everton a burst of momentum which they failed to capitalize on.
Everton started with a 3-4-3 formation with Gordon as the central striker and McNeil and Gray as supporters up front. Mykolenko, Iwobi. Doucoure and Patterson lined up in the middle of the pitch. Tarkowski, Coady, and Holgate were in the back three with Pickford manning the goal lines. Villa started with a 4-1-2-1-2 with Cash, Carlos, MIngs, and Digne in the back four. Kamra played as the holding midfielder with McGinn and Ramsey as the double pivot. Coutinho, Ings, and Watkins made up the forward line for Villa.
Danny Ings opened the scoring of the match for Aston Villa with a beautiful assist from captain Ollie Watkins. Then, Emi Buendia added on another goal with the help of an assist from Ollie Watkins. However, it wasn’t all comfortable sailing for Aston Villa. A late goal own goal from Lucas Digne meant that Everton had a fighting chance. Everton came very close to equalizing the score many times in the match. Amadou Onana fumbled what must have been the shock equalizer in front of the post.
Aston Villa and Everton managers react
In the post-match press conference, Everton manager Frank Lampard said that he felt that Everton deserved a draw in the match. Despite that, the gaffer admired the spirit of the Everton players and lamented about injuries plaguing Everton so early in the league.
“We should have got the draw at the end of the game. Everton had two or three really good chances. We were set defensively and organised, I didn’t think they gave us huge problems…… But the spirit was good. In two games now, we’ve had an injury and had to make a sub in the first half. It’s not the factor, but it’s a factor
Frank Lampard- Guardian
Aston Villa manager Steven Gerrard said that the club could have scored even more goals. Moreover, he also said that this game was a big test of Aston Villa’s resilience and coolness.
“We had large pockets of control, we could have scored a couple more goals. We conceded a poor goal and there was always going to be nervousness, but that was a big test of our character and resilience, and we stood firm. I thought we deserved our win”
Steven Gerrard, The Guardian
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