Dominant Everton Forced To Settle For Point Against Villa

Everton produced a dominant performance but were forced to settle for a point as the maiden visit of Aston Villa to Hill Dickinson Stadium ended goalless.

The Blues were excellent throughout, registering 20 shots with 14 of those coming from inside the penalty area, to the visitors' six efforts on goal.

Beto came close to opening the scoring within two minutes of the start of the contest and almost immediately after half-time, but couldn't quite apply the finishing touch on either occasion.

Michael Keane also threatened with a series of headers, with Villa goalkeeper Emi Martinez producing a stunning stop in the closing stages to earn Villa a point.

The result extends the Toffees' unbeaten run to four games in all competitions.

FIRST HALF

Managing his 543rd game – one more than the legendary Howard Kendall – as Everton boss, David Moyes made one enforced change from the side that started the 3-2 win at Wolves prior to the international break, with Tim Iroegbunam replacing the injured Vitalii Mykolenko and James Garner once again deputising at left-back.

The Toffees started superbly and could have taken the lead inside two minutes when the ever-lively Iliman Ndiaye – an injury doubt heading into the contest – pinched possession just inside Toffees territory before playing a give-and-go with Beto. Ndiaye charged down the right channel before finding Beto again with a low cross, but the No.9 struck his shot into his standing leg and the ball bounced agonisingly wide of the target.

Everton continued to push forward with Michael Keane powerfully heading narrowly wide from Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall's inviting free-kick and Jack Grealish stinging the palms of Martinez following a long throw-in from Jake O'Brien.

Keane then went even closer with a flicked header at the near post from James Garner's in-swinging corner.

Jordan Pickford remained a spectator for much of the opening period and, even when Villa won a free-kick in a dangerous position heading into stoppage time, former Blue Lucas Digne harmlessly curled his effort into the wall.

SECOND HALF

Beto came close to breaking the deadlock within the opening few minutes of the second half, too.

Grealish teased Matty Cash – already on a yellow card after one too many first-half fouls on the former Villa man – on the left flank and when Garner flashed the ball across the face of goal, Beto couldn't quite get enough on his glancing touch to divert it on goal.

Unai Emery's side responded with their first moment of genuine threat of the contest. A quickly-taken free-kick found its way to Emi Buendia, who drove towards goal with Everton's defence back-peddling and it was a heart-in-mouth moment when James Tarkowski applied a block to the shot that, fortunately, curled wide of Pickford's right-hand post.

It turned into a more equal affair from that moment and Everton went close next when Dewsbury-Hall's low cross was spilled by Martinez, with Jake O'Brien and Iroegbunam both seeing shots blocked on the rebound.

Deadline day recruit Merlin Röhl was given a rapturous ovation as he came on for his Everton debut, replacing Iroegbunam with 25 minutes remaining.

The intensity cranked up and Martinez produced a stunning save to keep out Keane's bullet header from six yards to deny Grealish what would have been a fifth assist of the season so far.

The Blues continued to push in the closing stages and the outstanding Idrissa Gana Gueye showed typically impressive energy to win the ball back against the odds on the halfway line and playing in Thierno Barry – but Tyrone Mings recovered well to force the Blues substitute wide before blocking his effort behind for a corner.

Keane went close again in stoppage time with yet another header from Grealish's perfectly-weighted cross but the ball flew frustratingly wide of the South Stand net.