Analysis: Ugly win over the Toffees tastes so sweet for Aston Villa

Everton 0 Villa 1 was an ugly yet important victory for a team which knows it needs to start backing up big talk off the field with some positive results on it.

A scrappy, single-goal triumph over the struggling Toffees could hardly be termed a statement but it was a timely injection of life into a season which, otherwise, would have been in danger of stalling.

Hovering just above the bottom six prior to the weekend, Villa have a decent view of the Premier League’s top half. This season’s target of a top-eight finish still just about feels a realistic one.

Head coach Steven Gerrard now has a valuable two-and-a-half weeks to work with his players before they are next in action against Leeds on February 9. By then Leon Bailey is likely to be back in training, while fellow wingers Bertrand Traore and Trezeguet will have returned from the Africa Cup of Nations. It is possible the head coach’s squad might have also been bolstered by another quality signing or two and meaning Villa could be in their strongest shape yet heading into what promises to be a frenetic final three months of the season.

Now more than halfway through it they remain a work in progress, albeit one where some of the key components are starting to fire on a regular basis.

Gerrard recently outlined his desire to build a team which possesses both steel and style. At Goodison Park on Saturday, it was the welcome return of the former which helped Villa win the day.

Through a four-match winless run leading into the fixture his team had too often been guilty of gifting their opponents the initiative. Saturday, by contrast, saw a welcome return to the resilience which characterised the early weeks of Gerrard’s tenure.

Villa’s defence could not be described as totally watertight. Everton striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin was guilty of missing a glorious chance to equalise midway through the second period. But it was the only clear-cut opportunity allowed by a visiting defence which bent but refused to break as the hosts enacted an aerial bombardment in the final half-hour.

There was a sense leading into the match events might have conspired against Villa. Everton, beaten in nine of their previous 12 Premier League matches, were supposed to be buoyed by the dismissal of loathed boss Rafa Benitez and the presence of club legend Duncan Ferguson in the dugout.

Instead they met a Villa team which quickly proved it was ready for the fight, John McGinn setting the tone inside the opening five minutes with two hefty challenges which fell just the right side of legal.

What little quality was on show, meanwhile, came from Emi Buendia. For the second week running the playmaker was Villa’s man of the match and this time the match-winner, netting the only goal of the game when he masterfully redirected Lucas Digne’s corner up and over goalkeeper Jordan Pickford in the last action of the first half.

It has taken longer than anyone, not least Buendia, would have liked but the Argentine is now starting to appear every inch the player Villa thought they were getting when they made him their club record signing last summer. Too often peripheral in his early showings, Buendia has become increasingly central to the team’s best work, flourishing in a role just behind the striker. Most importantly, he looks like a player at home and ease with himself.

The same cannot be said for the rest of Villa’s forward line. Ollie Watkins did not have a dreadful game by any means, with his running and ability to find space in behind causing no end of headaches for the Everton defence in the first half. Yet there is currently an infuriating lack of finesse to some of his work. A one-on-one chance created in large part by his own clever movement was prodded hurriedly wide while, later, Watkins failed to find a team-mate with a low cross having burst to the byline. Right now he looks a striker in need of a goal.

Philippe Coutinho, on the other hand, appears in need of a bit more game time before he is fully up to speed. Handed his first start after the thrilling debut cameo against Manchester United the previous weekend, the Brazil international looked a beat or two behind the action, visiting supporters getting only the occasional glimpse of his quality.

Villa’s other new boy, Lucas Digne, fared better, even if he did take a blow in the face from a plastic bottle hurled from the crowd.

It remains to be seen how much of an upgrade the France international is defensively. There were times in the second half when Anthony Gordon, whose arrival off the bench energised Everton, was afforded a little too much space. But in the attacking third Digne’s ability is already obvious and on this occasion proved pivotal courtesy of his excellent delivery for the goal.

This was Villa’s eighth win of the season and their fifth under Gerrard, whose 11 matches in charge have also included five defeats. The challenge, clearly, is to find some consistency and matches after the restart against Leeds, Newcastle and Watford – all currently below them in the table – look inviting in that sense. For Villa the only direction from here has to be up.