HEROES AND VILLAINS

Buendia finally finding his form but the frustration boils over on Merseyside

A SENSE of liberation spread around Goodison Park before kick-off. It did not last for long. If there was lingering relief that the club had been rid of the rule of Rafa Benitez, it was soon replaced by the tyranny of fear. Everton’s defeat by Aston Villa left them precariously above the drop zone. To adapt the rallying cry of new caretaker manager, Duncan Ferguson, if they did not already know they were in a relegation fight, they do now.

Agent Rafa may be gone but another of Liverpool’s favourite sons came back to haunt them instead. If Everton are a club in freefall, Steven Gerrard is already making his mark on Villa and driving them upwards. The scoreline was close but Villa were the better side by a distance. It was apt that the game’s most creative player, Emiliano Buendia, should have scored the only goal.

So Everton lie only four points above the bottom three and still have to visit the teams who occupied the relegation places yesterday afternoon, Watford, Newcastle and Burnley. The club is riven by dissent and division, too. After the final whistle, a few hundred fans stayed behind in the Gwladys Street End, holding banners and chanting ‘Sack the Board’ and ‘Get out of our club’ over and over again.

There was not much to cheer them here. Ferguson had won more friends by leaving some money behind the bar of the Winslow Hotel on Goodison Road to buy a drink for any Everton fan who visited before the game but free drinks only get you so far. Everton had plenty of fight but very little guile. Their barrage of long balls were comfortably repelled by the

Villa defence. They looked bereft of ideas.

They may have to face an FA inquiry, too. After Buendia’s goal at the end of the first half, missiles were thrown from the Gwladys Street as Villa players celebrated. Two Villa players, Lucas Digne and Matty Cash, fell to the floor.

Quite where Everton go now is hard to fathom. They are thought to be interested in Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard, Roberto Martinez and Fabio Cannavaro as the next permanent manager. The evidence from this defeat suggests they need to move quickly. Newcastle have spent a lot of money in the transfer window already and will spend more. Their results will improve. Norwich are showing signs of life. Everton cannot afford to drop any further. ‘We need to get a result very soon,’ Ferguson said after the match.

Ferguson did not lose a game in his four-match stint in charge in December 2019 but that streak ended against Villa. Gerrard has always had a taste for playing Everton and that did not change. He scored nine Premier League goals for Liverpool against their Merseyside rivals and lost only four of his 30 meetings with them.

Ferguson had wasted no time in putting some distance between him and Benitez. He rang the changes in his starting line-up, dropping five players from the side that lost to Norwich last week. Seamus Coleman, new signing Vitaliy Mykolenko, Anthony Gordon, Michael Keane and Salomon Rondon were all axed. Yerry Mina was restored to the heart of defence and named as captain. Richarlison, Jonjoe Kenny, Mason Holgate and Andros Townsend came back into the starting XI.

Mina did not make the most assured start to his return. He misjudged a long ball out of the Villa defence early on and seemed to pull back Ollie Watkins as Watkins darted in behind him. He got away with it but it was an echo of past misfortunes that did not bode well for the game.

Everton competed. There was no problem with their attitude. That was never going to be an issue with the looming presence of Ferguson on the touchline. They flew into tackles and not one challenge was shirked. When new Villa signing Philippe Coutinho tried to dribble past Mina in the Everton box, Mina dispossessed him and then wagged his finger at the Brazilian, rebuking him for his impudence.

But if Everton did not lack fight, they did lack subtlety or creativity. They did not muster a shot on target throughout the first half and looked devoid of ideas compared to their opponents. They had no one with the skill of John McGinn, Watkins, Buendia or Coutinho. Villa grew more assured as the half progressed and Buendia was at the heart of everything they did.

He has struggled to rediscover the form that persuaded Villa to sign him from Norwich in the summer but he is starting to show signs of all his old excellence. Some thought he would lose his place to Coutinho but he is starting to thrive. He played well against Manchester United last week and Everton could not contain him here.

Buendia forced Jordan Pickford into an early save when the Everton goalkeeper dived low to his right to parry a fiercely hit right-foot shot and, a few minutes later, the Argentinian danced beyond two challenges inside the Everton half before dragging his shot wide.

Everton spurned a golden opportunity when Digne was caught in possession on the halfway line but Abdoulaye Doucoure could not pick out Richarlison and the chance was wasted.

Everton soon regretted that. Just before half-time, Buendia’s freekick found Coutinho and his header was pushed over by Pickford. From

the resulting corner, Buendia got ahead of his marker and glanced a header goalwards. Pickford tried to reach hit but his fingertip touch only succeeded in taking the ball away from Townsend on the line and into the net.

The Villa players celebrated in front of the Gwladys Street end and several objects, including a bottle of juice, were thrown on to the pitch. Digne appeared to be hit by one of them and fell to the ground, clutching his head. Cash was hurt, too. Both were able to resume the game but the trend of fans hurling objects at opposing players has taken hold of English football and needs to be dealt with. Everton

fought back after the interval. Emiliano Martinez and Tyrone Mings combined to block a close-range header from Ben Godfrey and Ferguson made two quick substitutions. One of them, Gordon, crossed for Richarlison, who headed just over.

Then, midway through the half, he curled in a superb cross from the right for Dominic CalvertLewin, but he could not control it and the ball looped over.

Everton laid siege to the Villa goal in the closing stages to no avail and, when the final whistle blew, most of their fans had left and all that was left was the sound of protest and discontent. It may be a long winter on this half of Merseyside.