Chelsea deserve more credit for their truly remarkable generosity. Romelu Lukaku, the Stamford Bridge loanee who just keeps on giving, scored his fifth goal in as many games for Everton, and with substitute Leon Osman adding a second, their manager Roberto Martínez saw his side move up to third in the Premier League, at least for two hours.
The irony will not have escaped Paul Lambert. If the Villa manager had got his way, Lukaku could have been partnering Christian Benteke up front for his side in this game. As it was Lambert admitted the club had been frightened off by Lukaku's wages, and Chelsea farmed him out to West Bromwich Albion and now Everton instead.
While Benteke has proven himself a pretty good option, there was no doubting which of the two powerful Belgian centre-forwards carried the greater threat in this game.
No two sides in England have played each other more often than Aston Villa and Everton, and the 215th competitive meeting between these two founding members of the Football League told those watching much about their respective strengths and, in Villa's case in particular, weaknesses.
There was a worryingly early scare for Villa when Lukaku came close to turning in a Kevin Mirallas cross from the right, but the home team should have had the reassurance of going ahead when Seamus Coleman clumsily tripped Benteke on his first drive into the Everton penalty area.
There were no protests from the Everton defenders, and Benteke hit the resulting spot-kick with plenty of power, but the Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard made an outstanding save diving to his right.
Benteke had another wonderful chance after 22 minutes. Gabby Agbonlahor won possession in the centre circle, and quickly found Aleksandar Tonev. The Bulgarian flicked the ball through to put Benteke clear on the left, but the striker's attempt to beat Howard was weak, and though the American again had to dive to save, it was a stop he would have expected to make.
The Everton backline was caught square again soon afterwards, though Andreas Weimann looked offside running on to Agbonlahor's ball. Howard timed his advance perfectly to block, and though Weimann had a second chance from the rebound, James McCarthy was on hand to make a goal-saving tackle.
The chances kept coming. Lukaku's mix of power and skill saw him drive through the Villa defence only to scuff his attempt to beat Brad Guzan against the Villa goalkeeper's body. Whether Guzan would have saved the Ross Barkley shot which deflected off Ashley Westwood's foot on to the top of his bar is a moot point, but the American was at his best in stopping Lukaku's header soon afterwards.
That the last two opportunities fell to the visitors appeared to indicate they were beginning to work Villa out. Creatively, Lambert's side is at its most effective inviting the opposition to attack them and then playing on the break, and as the game went on, Everton were noticeably less inclined to commit numbers forward.
It was no surprise, then, that the chances began to dry up. With the England manager Roy Hodsgon looking on, Martínez replaced the badly out-of-sorts Barkley with Leon Osman, and was quickly rewarded when Osman squared the ball for Lukaku, from the edge of the Villa penalty area, to shoot low past Guzan's right hand.
Osman had an even more direct impact with 10 minutes remaining. In what was an almost exact replica of the first goal, Gareth Barry pulled the ball across the Villa goal and Osman, like Lukaku before him, drove the ball precisely beyond Guzan.
The Villa supporters greeted the final whistle with boos. This is their fourth defeat in five matches at home.
via Football news, match reports and fixtures | theguardian.com http://feeds.theguardian.com/c/34708/f/663845/s/32f22448/sc/13/l/0L0Stheguardian0N0Cfootball0C20A130Coct0C260Caston0Evilla0Eeverton0Epremier0Eleague/story01.htm
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