Aston Villa Targets First Season Home Win In Upcoming Everton Clash

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Unai Emery is optimistic that Aston Villa can harness their competitive edge as they seek their first home win of the season against Everton. Villa has secured victories in both away matches against West Ham and Leicester City, each with a 2-1 scoreline, showing resilience to earn six points.

Everton, on the other hand, has yet to secure a point this season after three consecutive defeats. They are currently at the bottom of the table, having conceded ten goals and scored just two. New signing Tim Iroegbunam, who joined from Villa, has played every minute so far and is hopeful about turning things around.

"Obviously, the couple of results we've had in the league so far have been disappointing but, from a personal point of view, I'm pleased with how it's been going," Iroegbunam said. "I knew that if I did well in pre-season that I could have a chance to play straight away. The fact that it's happened for me is promising, but there's lots to do."

Aston Villa: Jhon Duran

Despite starting only three Premier League games in his career, Jhon Duran has netted seven goals in the competition. Six of these goals came as a substitute. His average of 96 minutes per goal is the best among Villa players who have scored three or more times for the club in the Premier League.

Everton: Dominic Calvert-Lewin

Dominic Calvert-Lewin has made 97 off-the-ball runs this Premier League season, more than any other player. Of these runs, 44 were targeted, also a league-high. The striker has either scored (five) or assisted (two) seven of Everton's last 12 league goals.

Villa's Home Performance

Villa struggled at home against Arsenal, losing 2-0 despite having more attempts and creating a higher expected goals tally. Emery anticipates a tough match against Everton despite their recent struggles. "Every game is difficult, but we compete," Emery said. "We did against Arsenal as well. We compete really well."

"Competitive is what we want to be," Emery added. "But we always want to improve and try to perform quality and try to be very demanding in our analysis of ourselves, and I'm happy with how they respond on the pitch."

Match Prediction: Aston Villa Win

Since returning to the Premier League in 2019, Villa has remained unbeaten in all ten league meetings with Everton (W7 D3), keeping seven clean sheets and conceding just three goals during this period.

Following a run of fifteen successive home league wins from March to December 2023, Villa has won only four of their last twelve Premier League games at Villa Park (D4 L4), losing their only match this season 0-2 to Arsenal.

Historical Context

Everton has lost eight of their last ten top-flight games immediately following an international break (W1 D1), including all four such matches last season. Conversely, Villa has won each of their last five league matches immediately following an international break.

The Toffees are one of two sides along with Southampton to lose all three Premier League games so far this season. Only in 1926-27 (five) and 1958-59 (six) have they had longer losing streaks from the start of a league campaign.

Current Form

Dyche's men are currently on a poor run, having lost each of their last four Premier League games; not since October 2005 under David Moyes have they lost five consecutive matches in the competition (a run of six).

Aston Villa will aim to continue their unbeaten streak against Everton while looking for their first home win this season.