Everton vs Aston Villa

Everton’s battle for Premier League survival continues this weekend as out-of-sorts Aston Villa touch down at Goodison Park.

An underwhelming 2-0 Merseyside derby defeat to Liverpool, sandwiched by a pair of 1-0 home triumphs over Arsenal and fellow relegation rivals Leeds United, steered Everton outside the drop zone for the first time since the beginning of January. New manager Sean Dyche is on the cusp of helping the ‘Toffees’ win three consecutive home league matches without conceding for the first time in nearly four years. Yet Dyche couldn’t have picked out a worse opponent to achieve that feat, with Everton losing their last two home league H2Hs via a single-goal margin. Another defeat would see them suffer three home defeats in a row to Villa for the first time in their league history.

That prospect isn’t out of the realm of possibility, with Aston Villa going unbeaten in all seven Premier League encounters against Everton since earning top-flight promotion in 2019 (W5, D2), including three victories on the trot. Aiming at a fourth straight H2H league win for the first time since 1998, the ‘Lions’ come into proceedings amid a rough patch, having lost their last three Premier League outings, conceding 3+ goals on each occasion. On a slightly more positive note, before slumping to a 3-1 defeat at back-to-back champions Manchester City on their most recent travel, Villa had won three consecutive away league games under Unai Emery by an aggregate score of 5-1. A fourth successive away league defeat in the same manner would see Villa meet an unwanted piece of history, with the Birmingham outfit last experiencing that feat in 1958.