Everton Host Aston Villa Post International Break!

Everton host Aston Villa for the second Premier League fixture at Hill Dickinson Stadium and the first 3pm kickoff on a Saturday.

Both clubs have been polar opposites throughout the first few game weeks this campaign, with Aston Villa still without a victory so far and David Moyes’ side with six points on the board. However, post-international break, there is a big chunk of fixtures ahead, and a realistic Premier League table may start to form, and for Villa, there is a lot of work to do. Last time out at Villa Park, Unai Emery’s squad was humiliated by Crystal Palace, who won 3-0 away from home! An early penalty goal from French striker Jean-Philippe Mateta set the tempo, which would later be followed by 2 goals in 10 minutes within the second half from Marc Guehi, whose deadline day move to Liverpool was reportedly blocked by Palace manager Oliver Glasner, with some news outlets reporting that Glasner threatened to walk away from the managerial role if the deal went ahead, and Senegalese winger Ismailia Sarr.

For the Toffees, it was a 5-goal thriller at the Molineux, with the Blues coming out on top. Portuguese striker Beto opened the scoring in the first 7 minutes of the game. With Everton on top, it was a surprise to see Wolves equalise through Hwang Hee-Chan in the middle of the first half. A rollercoaster of emotions for everyone on the ground, as Everton’s double would give the advantage when it came to the 55th minute, with the Blues leading 3-1 at this point. The Toffees were controlling the game, with the away end in full voice; that was until Rodrigo Gomes’ consolation goal, which caused a lot of stress and a swift change of tempo alongside that too. Luckily the Toffees were able to hang on, claiming a huge three points on the road, marking the continuation of a decent beginning of the season!

Throughout the international break, multiple players from both Aston Villa and Everton represented their nations during the FIFA World Cup qualifiers. For Villa, both Ezri Konsa and Morgan Rogers came off the bench in the second half in England’s 2-0 win over Andorra, with the game being hosted at Villa Park! It’s fair to say that Matty Cash impressed for Poland, scoring two goals in two games in a draw against the Netherlands and a win against Finland. Furthermore, Emi Martinez (Argentina), Lucas Digne (France), Lamare Bogarde (Netherlands) and Youri Tielemans (Belgium) all represented their countries, with Tielemans scoring and captaining the nation.

On the other hand, Everton had 9 players representing their nations! Jordan Pickford kept two clean sheets in two games for England, maintaining his status as first-choice goalkeeper. For the Republic of Ireland, Marc Travers served as a backup goalkeeper in a draw against Hungary and a loss to Armenia, and Jake O’Brien played the full 90 minutes throughout both games. Both Iliman Ndiaye and Idrissa Gana Gueye featured for Senegal, with the attacker coming off in the 82nd minute against Sudan and playing the full game in a 3-2 win over Congo DR, as did Gueye, who was benched for the game prior. Beto played 66 minutes for Guinea-Bissau in a draw versus Sierra Leone and came on in the 61st minute against Djibouti in their second game. Both Tyler Dibling and Harrison Armstrong played for England’s youth setups, with Dibling playing and assisting for Jobe Bellingham’s goal in a 2-0 win and Armstrong playing and scoring a couple of goals throughout their fixtures: Ukraine, Netherlands, and Spain. Tom King was unused for Wales during their one game against Kazakhstan.

Both managers gave injury updates in their pre-match press conferences with the media, with David Moyes revealing that both Iliman Ndiaye and Vitalii Mykolenko face late fitness checks, with Moyes stating that “we’ve got a concern about Ili Ndiaye – he's got a knock, so we'll need to see. We're not sure how he'll be for tomorrow,” also adding that, “Myko is around it. We'll need to see whether he's going to make it or not. Hopefully he might be okay. He had felt something in the game against Wolves, and he'd made it known, but he felt that he was fine to go to Ukraine, but once he got there, he felt that maybe he wasn't quite right, so he came away from it.” Nathan Patterson and Adam Aznou are both back in training but are not yet match fit, alongside Jarrad Branthwaite, with Moyes explaining that, “Jarrad is getting closer, but he's not quite there yet – but he's certainly getting closer, and hopefully we get him back because he's a huge player for us.”

For Aston Villa, Unai Emery has stated that Matty Cash, who impressed during the World Cup qualifiers, will be available for selection after being forced off the pitch with Poland, as well as Emi Martinez, who this summer was a talking figure amongst a lot of transfer speculation. However, not getting the move the 33-year-old would’ve wanted, the goalkeeper is now in contention to play against the Toffees. Amadou Onana and Ross Barkley are unavailable, with Jadon Sancho being deemed unfit and not up to physical standards as of yet to feature for Aston Villa.

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Thank you for reading my pre-match article!