Villa v Everton preview (Villa Park, Sunday, 2pm)

Sep 22 2007

TRIPS to Villa Park have proven a useful indicator for David Moyes in recent seasons.

From the 3-1 win in 2005 that pushed them towards a top-four finish to the nadir of the infamous Boxing Day thrashing the next campaign, fixtures in the Midlands heartland have revealed much about Everton’s form.

Moyes will discover more about that state of his players when they travel to Aston Villa tomorrow afternoon less than 72 hours after their extraordinary UEFA Cup encounter with Metalist Kharkiv on Thursday night.

The second of six games in 18 hectic days, it represents the first real test of the strength in depth of Everton’s new-look squad.

And skipper Phil Neville accepts the Goodison outfit must now begin justifying the value of Moyes’s summer spending spree.

“On paper, this is the strongest squad we have had in some time, but we have to make sure we go out there and put in better performances,” says Neville. “It’s no good having the players on paper, we have to go out on the pitch and show it.

The games are now coming thick and fast and that’s what we want. There’s nothing worse than going weeks without games, and now we are in a situation where we have a lot of games coming up.

“You’ll see no moaning from the lads because it’s what we’ve always wanted. We want to play big games in midweek and big games at the weekend.

“Sunday should be a good game, and we’ll have to make sure we get our legs back and recover and move on.”

Thursday’s 1-1 draw against Metalist underlined Everton’s struggle to convince at Goodison this season.

After an unimpressive opening day victory over Wigan Athletic, Moyes’s side have since been held at home by Blackburn Rovers and beaten by champions Manchester United.

Late goals conceded in their last two home games means Everton are still searching for their first clean sheet of the campaign.

And Neville says: “We need to make Goodison a fortress again. We need to start keeping clean sheets, which is something we haven’t done so far this season. That’s not just down to the defence, but the midfield and the attack as well. We have to defend better as a team, and I’m sure that will come.”

By contrast, Everton’s encouraging away form this season has seen them already post fine victories at Tottenham Hotspur and Bolton Wanderers.

“I don’t think there’s any particular reason why we are doing better away from home at the moment, but the away form has kept us up near the top, and it’ll have to on Sunday because Villa is a tough game,” adds Neville.

“They beat Chelsea in their last home game, so that’s the mark of the team we are playing against.

“There is a group of teams in the middle of the table now that can beat anyone, and I see Villa as part of that group.”

Moyes also anticipates a testing afternoon against Martin O’Neill’s side, who are three points behind Everton in the Premier League but have a game in hand.

“We’ve had good performances away from home and we want to get another good result if we can,” says the Goodison manager. “Aston Villa are a good side with a lot of attacking options.

“They can cause you problems. It will certainly test us and it will be a difficult game. I watched them at Manchester City and I thought they played well and were very unfortunate not to win the game. And they beat Chelsea at home.”

Neville admits Everton’s players can have no time to dwell on the major disappointment of their UEFA Cup draw on Thursday, when the skipper believes the team were betrayed by their inexperience in Europe.

“We are all gutted,” he says. “We expected a good lead going into the second leg, but the away goal kills you and we’ve left ourselves a lot to do.

“Maybe we were a bit excited at times with it being a big European game.

“The only way you are going to learn is to play more games in Europe, but if we keep playing like that we won’t have many more European games to play.

“We’re a resilient lot and we’re confident of going out there and scoring an away goal and winning the tie. We worked so hard last season that we aren’t going to throw it away now against a team we should be beating.”

Neville adds: “The away leg is now going to be a massive game for this football club. Maybe Metalist will have to come out a little bit more in the second leg and push men forward and that’ll suit us on the counter-attack.

“It’s totally different to the Premier League. You can be comfortable in a game then concede a goal on the counter-attack, and that’s what does you. We’ll learn from that and we’ll be prepared for the second leg.”