AT the sound of the final whistle, one by one they dropped to their knees on the turf in exhaustion, puffing out their cheeks and catching their breath having been subjected to a one-sided battering.

But that these Aston Villa players could then celebrate victory said everything about another frustrating afternoon for David Moyes and his disbelieving, disconsolate Everton players.

The most-played fixture in English football ended in the same old story for the Goodison outfit in the Premier League this season.

Once again, a dismal failure to turn territorial advantage into tangible reward proved their undoing and means Moyes’s men are still seeking their first top-flight win of the campaign.

They have only themselves to blame for this defeat. Everton appeared to take as many corners as Lewis Hamilton yesterday, 18 in all compared to Villa’s four.

But while the Englishman can celebrate victory in Belgium to return to the top of the Formula One world championship, now only West Ham United and Stoke City lie below Everton in the formative Premier League table.

Of course, given that this result has propelled a team as troubled as Villa into a Champions League qualification berth, there is no need to panic just yet.

But after the slow starts of recent seasons and the subsequent strenuous attempts to play catch-up, there is a concern this could be history repeating for Moyes’s men.