Aston Villa v Everton - as it happened

Preamble: I've just been watching Bolton v Birmingham, so I have nothing much to say about this game at this stage except: please be better. Not a good start to the season for either side – Everton have one point from two games and last failed to win any of their first three in 1999. Villa have brought in Nigel Reo-Coker at the last minute after Stephen Ireland sustained an injury in the warm-up. 3.54pm: So, today's teams then: Aston Villa: Friedel, Luke Young, Collins, Dunne, Warnock, Albrighton, Reo-Coker, Petrov, Downing, Ashley Young, Carew. Subs: Guzan, Agbonlahor, Delfouneso, Heskey, Cuellar, Lichaj, Bannan. Everton: Howard, Hibbert, Jagielka, Distin, Baines, Arteta, Fellaini, Rodwell, Pienaar, Cahill, Beckford. Subs: Mucha, Heitinga, Bilyaletdinov, Saha, Gueye, Osman, Coleman. Referee: Michael Jones (Cheshire). 1 min: Peeeep! They're off! 4 mins: Right, sorry for the half-hearted introduction. Another busy day at journalism's coalface. Let's get on with the game. 5 mins: Baines bursts into the box, but ends up a bit close to the byline and Dunne covers the eventual cross, which goes out for a corner. GOAL! Aston Villa 1 Everton 0 (Luke Young, 9 mins) Excellent run by Young, which nobody predicted or indeed covered, sprinting from the touchline into the heart of the penalty area. Ashley Young spotted it though, sliding the ball into his namesake's path for a splendid first-time, left-foot curling finish from 16 yards. Football. 12 mins: Beckford totally does Dunne for pace, and although there was cover the big Irishman sticks out a stocky leg and Beckford goes over a massive thigh. Yellow card for Dunne. 14 mins: Dunne clips Beckford's ankles, and is treading a disciplinary tightrope already, not especially delicately. 18 mins: Pienaar hits the corner of post and bar with a lovely curling shot from the corner of the penalty area, Brad Friedel absolutely rooted. This time the full-back was the creator: Leighton Baines spotting the pass. 20 mins: No goals so far between Sunderland and Manchester City or between Liverpool and West Bromwich, though I'm told Carlos Tevez has submitted his application for miss of the decade at the Stadium of Light. 22 mins: Cahill runs into his own half, wins a free-kick, runs back into Villa's half and gives away a free-kick. Pleasing circularity, if nothing else. 26 mins: Good game, this, with potential to improve. Everton have started very well, for all that they're a goal down. Luke Young's work isn't done with the goal – the Peinaar/Baines link-up down his flank has a lot of potential. Elsewhere, Fernando Torres has put Liverpool 1-0 up. 31 mins: Villa are under pressure, though Everton helped them out by curling a corner – their second in a minute – straight out of play. 35 mins: Villa's central defenders – Dunne and Collins – are looking fairly comfortable in the air, but that's all that's standing between Everton and the goal here. They've had 83% of possession in the last 10 minutes, but haven't created much. 37 mins: Baines overhits a final pass, which Friedel collects. He promptly booters it downfield without waiting for anyone to leave his area, and the ball is lost again. 39 mins: Villa's 20-year-old midfielder Marc Albrighton is getting a pasting from Andy Gray on Sky after a testing first 40 minutes. He doesn't seem to have much except give the ball away, though the day (and the player) is young. 42 mins: Baines gets to the byline, but the ball rolls just out of play before he sends the ball in. A good call from the linesman. Villa are currently the third-best team on show, after Everton and the officials. 44 mins: Reo-Coker prods the ball to Albrighton, who swerves past the first man and surges into the penalty area before winning a corner. A minute later Ashley Young plays the ball to the same player in the penalty area, and he goes down with Pienaar nearby. Not a penalty in my mind, or the referee's. Half-time: Ashley Young produces a trademark curling shot from the edge of the penalty area, easily saved, to bring the half to a close. Everton have been well on top, yet they're losing. Funny old game etc etc. 46 mins: Peeep! They're off! Again! Julian Menz emails to ask if Randy Lerner would prefer Villa to lose today – "If Villa win, they can't very well sack Kevin McDonald without looking like, well, Villains. I wouldn't be surprised if they wouldn't secretly welcome a loss." Me, I'm not convinced. I think even if Villa win this game, they haven't provided much of an argument for McDonald's appointment. 48 mins: By the way, Darren Bent scored a stoppage-time penalty to give Sunderland a 1-0 win against Manchester City. Liverpool beat West Bromwich by the same scoreline. 52 mins: "This inability to score so far this season has been maddening. What is not happening?" asks Brad Wilson. I think they need Arteta (or Pienaar) to play in the centre – Villa are defending very deep, lacking any obvious pace in their defence, but nobody is using the resulting space between their back-line and the midfield. In games like this, with crosses apparently unlikely to provide a breakthrough, they need a crafty little fella to lurk in the hole, methinks. 55 mins: Everton are preparing to bring Louis Saha on in their inevitable shake-it-up-a-bit second-half rejig. 56 mins: And Saha duly comes on for Beckford, who looked for a short while like he was going to terrorise Dunne but then, erm, didn't. 57 mins: Carew carries the ball 30 yards into Everton's penalty area, but then he isn't sure what people who go on 30-yard runs into penalty areas generally do once they get there and falls over. 58 mins: I have bought some "perfectly ripe" plums from Marks & Spencer but they're not ripe at all. I am angry about this. 59 mins: Carew bursts into the penalty area again, this time shooting low and hard and across Howard. The keeper pushes it away but Ashley Young looks set for a tap-in only for Jagielka to fling himself heroically at the ball, remove all sting from Young's shot and allow Howard to save again. 60 mins: Then Fellaini handles the ball – nothing given – before crossing low to Saha, whose shot is excellently saved. From the corner, Fellaini heads over and gets a rollicking from Cahill, who was lurking at the back post and reckoned he was all set for an easy conversion. 62 mins: More bookings: Albrighton (for fouling Baines) and Collins (for something else, a couple of minutes back). 63 mins: From Arteta's free-kick, Rodwell flicks on a header that bounces maybe three inches wide of the far post. 68 mins: Everton are by no means as dominant as they were in the first half. Villa are threatening on the break – if Agbonlahor is fit, this might be a good time to give him a run-out (as I type, the camera cuts to Agbonlahor, getting ready for a run-out). 68 mins: John Carew, who has had a good second-half, comes off for Agbonlahor. 70 mins: "I recently had some plums from M&S that were supposed to be 'super sweet'. Their bitterness would have put lemons to shame," reports Mark Gillies. I think their avocado-ripeness-testing department are on the top of their game at present, but the plum-testers have got to take a long hard look at themselves. 70 mins: Jack Rodwell limps off, with Seamus Coleman coming on. 74 mins: Aston Villa break, four against two. Ashley Young passes to Reo-Coker just as Phil Jagielka falls over – three against one. With two players inside to pass to, Reo-Coker instead hits the ball straight at the getting-to-his-feet centre-half, who clears for a corner. 75 mins: Villa miss a glorious chance! Ashley Young gets the ball in the penalty area, jinks onto his right foot and shoots across goal. Howard pushes the ball away and Albrighton at the far post blazes high of a gaping goal. Villa looking the more likely scorers now. 77 mins: Seamus Coleman does really well down the inside right channel, beats two men to get into the area, reaches the byline and sends in a low cross that nobody anticipates, allowing Villa to clear. 80 mins: This is really fun stuff, a good old traditional English blood-and-thunder end-to-end actionfest. Everton repeatedly inches away from scoring, with Collins and Dunne throwing themselves at anyone who looks like shooting, and Villa breaking whenever the opportunity arises. 81 mins: Villa's Stiliyan Petrov gets booked and Everton's Heitinga replaces Hibbert. 84 mins: Another Everton near-miss: Arteta's corner reaches Jagielka just in front of the near post, but he heads over. 86 mins: Everton 13-4 up on corners. Make that 14-4. 86 mins: 15-4. 86 mins: 16-4. 88 mins: Everton have had an incredible amount of pressure over this game, but have created very little. Villa's two central defenders by some way the most convincing area of their team. It's been a lot of fun to watch, so long as you don't support Everton (or Birmingham). 90 mins: Five minutes' stoppage time at the end of a half with no goals or significant injuries (but lots of corners). 90+3 mins: Everton break this time, and Cahill slides the ball to Saha in the penalty area. One touch to control the ball, a second to send it goalwards, but Friedel saves. 90+5 mins: Saha gets the ball about 20 yards out, misses the chance to play in the onrushing Cahill, ignores Arteta and then shoots low, from standing. Friedel dives full length to push the ball away as it heads towards the bottom corner. 90+6 mins: Peeep! It's all over! Aston Villa grab an important if not totally deserved victory and Everton depart, beaten and a bit puzzled. Final thoughts: A really entertaining game from two talented but far from fault-free teams. Clearly Everton have had a poor start to the season, but they looked a good side today, a top-10 side. Beckford has yet to come to terms with the division, and they improved once Saha came on, but though they didn't attack convincingly this was still a freak result – they would surely have scored a few here on any other day. For Villa, though, there is more than just the victory to enjoy – a fully committed performance, a lovely goal, and their Dunne-Collins defensive axis back to the form they showed last season. Bolton v Birmingham had four times as many goals but none of the joy – this was a great advert for the Premier League, as they say in the trade.