Live Blog

Fulltime Thoughts - Everton with an unexpected win against an opponent that has beaten them often in recent years. Dyche’s tactics spot on once again for second away win in a row.

90+5’ - Beto and McNeil playing keep-ball in the far left corner and the latter wins a freekick of Kamara, and that should be it really. There’s the final whistle, Everton win two away games on the trot and are through to the Fourth Round of the Carabao Cup!

90+3’ - Blues have managed to win a throw-in in the Villa half, and Douglas Luiz and McNeil get into some kind of angry face-off. Both are booked.
Beto wins the ball and has a chance to run at goal, is guided off the ball by Konsa.

90’ - Doucoure concedes a foul in a central location, edge of the midfield third. Douglas Luiz takes, setpiece routine and Diaby shoots from closer to goal, and Pickford does very well to punch clear.
Five plus minutes added on, still Villa attack. Ball swinging from side to side and the Blues cannot clear their lines. Ball comes to Luiz on the penalty spot with his back to goal and his scissor-kick attempt is well over.

88’ - Blues with a chance to attack and McNeil’s through ball to Beto is called offside. Very surprising that was stopped immediately given how close decisions of that nature are usually let to play on.

83’ - Patterson intervenes on a long ball for Digne, puts it out for a corner. Beto clears, falls to Kamara and his grasscutter from distance goes off Keane’s ankle and beats Pickford all ends up, wrong-footed completely! This game is still on, Villa pull one back to make it 2-1 with under ten minutes to play.

78’ - Onana coming off, getting a big shout from the away support, he has been excellent today. Abdoulaye Doucoure on for him.

75’ - Booking for Digne as he goes in hard and late on Garner. Meanwhile the foul was originally called on Tielemans who is quite the little shit isn’t he? Been completely outclassed by Onana today.

73’ - The next pair of changes will be Beto and Idrissa Gueye coming on, and DCL and Danjuma going off.
Onana is having himself a game here, rampaging through the Villa midfield at will.

70’ - Diaby wins a corner off Branth. Digne to take, dangerous ball that Konsa almost gets to. The former Everton leftback’s setpiece delivery remains A+.

67’ - Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Young, Patterson all making key challenges in their own box as Villa are ramping up the pressure.

65’ - Blues second sub of the afternoon is Jack Harrison coming off, he’s had himself quite the debut here. It’s Dwight McNeil coming on for him.
Tarky a little late on Watkins and gets booked. The Everton captain thinks the forward made a meal of it, can’t say I agree with him this time.

63’ - Dom so close! DCL holds up the ball and then fashions a shooting chance for himself on the left, Olsen saves though and the rebound is hacked away.

59’ - Onana chances his boot from outside the box, and oooh! That wasn’t too far off that top corner.
Onana now gets overexcited and overhits the ball over the backline for Danjuma to chase. The Blues looking very limber here to take advantage of any lapses.

57’ - The very vocal Everton support behind Pickford’s goal is LOVING this. They haven’t stopped singing, and are cheering on every tackle, every pressure, everything.

52’ - Ugh. Almost disastrous giveaway by Keane allows Villa to attack at pace, and Diaby’s shot from the Everton left is kicked away by Pickford, phew.

50’ - GOALLLLLLLL!!!!! Dominic. Calvert. Lewin. DCL steals the ball off an awful Tielemans backpass, and he easily tucks it past Olsen at the left post, and it’s 2-0 to the Blues!

47’ - Keane (!!) is the furthest forward and has the ball in the right channel, wins a corner on the right. Chaos in the box as Olsen doesn’t come out for it, Villa can eventually clear.
Patterson goes in the book for tugging back Zaniolo after he failed to win the ball off the Italian.

46’ - Second half underway, one change for the Blues with Ashley Young on for Mykolenko. Three changes for the hosts, with Digne, Kamara and Watkins on, McGinn, Dendoncker and Duran off.

Halftime Thoughts - Setting up with three in the backline has allowed Everton to press with vim and attack with vigor. The Blues might still regret not having scored again here, but for now, let’s hope they can adjust to whatever Villa throw at them in the second half because Emery will not just go away quietly.

45+3’ - Jeers from the Holte end as Villa are going backwards waiting for the halftime whistle, and there it is. Everton lead 1-0 after one of the best halves of football they have played in a couple of years, at least.

45+2’ - A shooting chance for Villa, Duran in space in the box but shoots way wild.

45’ - Onana almost finds Harrison on a long diagonal, three plus minutes to be added on here.

42’ - Patterson getting in the act now, embarrassing McGinn with a dink over the Villa man’s head that he controls himself.
Torres harried into giving away another corner that Harrison takes and the hosts can clear.

41’ - Garner glides through the middle with the ball, looking very confident.
Now Harrison skips over a challenge and plays in a delightful throughball to DCL running behind, his first shot is saved by Olsen! Rebound from a narrow angle, and into the side netting. Ooof, so close to two there for the Blues.

39’ - Oh goodness! Villa are really a mess in defence. Danjuma loses the ball in the Villa half, then the two opposition players contrive to give the ball back to him, and then a hacked clearance by McGinn comes off the post/Olsen and for a corner!
Harrison takes it, overhit a bit and it goes out.

37’ - Garner having a very good half here. A speculative volley from distance is well wide, then he pops up and steals the ball from Tielemans and then wins a foul as well in his own half.
Now Danjuma can run at Cash, cuts in and tries a shot, deflected to the goalie to collect.

34’ - Poor header from Mykolenko to Zaniolo, and then he tugs the sub back after that to give away a freekick. Ball into the box, ref blows for a foul as Dendoncker trips Tarkowski.
Pickford long goalkick looking for Harrison and almost finds his man before the ball bounces through to former Blue Robin Olsen in goal.

33’ - Harrison hounding Pau Torres on the ball and the Everton fans behind the goal there are simply loving it!

31’ - The Blues steal the ball in the Villa half once again but cannot take advantage. Meanwhile, Nicolo Zaniolo is on for the hosts to replace Bailey.

29’ - A hold-up as Bailey is down and will leave the game.
Meanwhile Patterson has won the Blues a corner on the right. Harrison takes it, quite poorly too and the low ball is cleared.

26’ - The Blues are using Dyche’s selective pressing tactic to great effect here. When Villa have the ball in their own box the Toffees are pressing man-to-man. Once that initial press is broken though, Villa aren’t getting vertical quick enough and the Blues are collapsing into a low-ish block with three men across the back and the wingbacks pulling in as well.

23’ - Everton’s famous away supporters are behind the goal the Blues are attacking, and they’re certainly making themselves heard very loudly at Villa Park, cheering on every tackle as the Blues press the home side relentlessly.

20’ - Bailey through ball for Diaby as the seas parted but Pickford slides out to gobble up the ball.

14’ - GOAL!! James Garner gets his first Everton goal, and it’s a cracking one too! The youngster follows up on an attack and hammers home. Calvert-Lewin and Danjuma with good hold-up play before Onana played in his fellow midfielder.

11’ - Duran cross partly blocked and out for another corner on the Blues left that is cleared.

8’ - Danger for the Blues. Everton hemmed into their own area as they try to pass their way out of trouble and failed to get the ball out. A corner is only half cleared and the resulting shot goes over, not too far away.

3’ - What a difference it makes having the pace of a player like Harrison on the pitch! Villa are insisting on playing out the back and the Blues are keeping the heat on them too.

1’ - Underway at Villa Park!

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Starting Lineups

Everton

Jack Harrison is making his first start for the Toffees! A total of five changes as the Blues switch to what looks like five in the back for the trip to Villa Park.

Aston Villa

Pretty strong lineup for the hosts, plenty of quality both on the pitch and on the bench too.

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Preview

Everton make their second trip in just over a month, but will be looking for a vastly different result this time. Getting their first league win of the season over the weekend away at Brentford certainly gave the players a boost, and Sean Dyche will be looking to tap into that tonight in their Carabao Cup Third Round fixture away at Villa Park against an Aston Villa side that will hopefully be distracted by everything else they have going on.

Unai Emery has really turned fortunes around at Villa since his arrival last season, and despite a surprising defeat in the first matchday of the group stages of the Europa Conference League they remain a dangerous opponent as a 1-0 win over Chelsea who were reduced to ten-men at Stamford Bridge proved.

Villa might have bigger fish to fry though, with a home game against speedy Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday and then their second European game midweek, so Emery might ring the changes. Meanwhile, that will leave Sean Dyche to make the choice of whether he will field a full-strength line-up keeping in mind they host Luton Town in the league this weekend.

Match Details

Competition: Carabao Cup Third Round

Date and start time: Wednesday, September 27th at 11:45 a.m. PT / 2:45 p.m ET / 7:45 p.m. BST

Stadium: Villa Park, Birmingham, England, United Kingdom

Capacity: 42,640

Weather: 65°F/18°C, mostly cloudy, 24% chance of precipitation, 9 mph winds

How to Watch/Listen

TV: ESPN+ - United States; N/A - United Kingdom; DAZN - Canada, beIN Sports HD 4, SuperSport OTT 4, SuperSport Action Africa

Radio: evertontv

Live stream: SuperSport Africa, beIN SPORTS CONNECT, ESPNPlay Caribbean

Gamethread: The live blog will commence an hour before kickoff with the lineup announcements.

*Royal Blue Mersey has affiliate partnerships and may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links provided.

Information from LiveSoccerTV.com

Last Meeting

The Toffees last trip to Villa Park was a forgettable one, getting ragdolled by a rampant Villa side 4-0, and it could have been much worse too. Everton have failed to beat them in their last nine games now in all competitions, with the last win over Villa coming back in March 2016.