Key stats
- Everton have beaten Aston Villa for the first time in the Premier League since 1st March 2016, a run of 13 games without a win.
- Prior to this game, the last time Aston Villa lost at home in any competition was a Premier League defeat by Crystal Palace on 31 August 2025
- Everton have kept a clean sheet in nine of their 22 games, only Arsenal (11) have done this more often in the Premier League this season.
Highlights
Analysis
A crucial period of dominance early in the second half brought about the winning goal.
Match report
With both Arsenal and Manchester City dropping points on Saturday, Villa were presented with the perfect opportunity to assert their intentions in the title race, particularly as they were previously unbeaten against Everton in league action since their return to the PL in 2019.
But the visitors almost provided a major shock just 11 seconds in when Merlin Röhl took on Barry’s lay-off and prodded against the post – the earliest striking of the woodwork in a PL match since records began.
Villa did have some joy, including when Morgan Rogers scooped over a few minutes later, but the Toffees soon started to dominate.
They even had the ball in the net just after the half-hour mark when Jake O’Brien nodded past Emiliano Martínez, but it was determined that Harrison Armstrong was in an offside position and impacting play when the cross was played in.
Villa tried to take advantage of the reprieve and saw Rogers’ close-range effort deflected away by O’Brien, before Evann Guessand looped his header against the crossbar from Youri Tielemans’ delivery.
The hosts looked to have improved further after the interval, but they still found themselves on the end of a shock deficit just before the hour mark. Dwight McNeil’s initial shot was only parried by Martínez, and Barry was first to react, calmly chipping over the Villa goalkeeper and into the net.
Villa responded with a barrage of attempts, and came closest when Rogers’ curling effort was stopped from finding the top corner by a flying save from Jordan Pickford.
Knowing that their glittering home run was about to come to an end, Villa became increasingly frustrated and failed to salvage anything in the late stages. David Moyes’ first personal PL victory over Emery will be particularly pleasing given his side move into the top half after winning four of their last six away league matches.
Meanwhile, Villa fail to take advantage of their rivals’ shortcomings, and they will need to improve on a record of just one win in four PL games if they are to avoid their top-four place coming into jeopardy in the coming weeks.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Jake O’Brien (Everton)
Post-match comments
Everton's James Garner labelled the Toffees' victory at Villa Park an "amazing" display of hard work.
"It was amazing," Garner told Sky Sports. "We worked so hard, they are such a great team, but the lads grinded it out today.
"We tried to fight what they are good at, which is playing through the middle.
"We tried to block passing lanes and force it way. When you come away at places like this, you might only get one or two chances.
"We were in a sticky patch and we needed to get out of it. It was an amazing performance from the lads."
Everton boss David Moyes said the defensive heroics of a clean sheet ensured Everton could "nick the game".
"It was magnificent. It's been a pretty difficult week for us but we got over that," he told Sky Sports.
"Coming here is never easy. The boys started well and we took confidence from it. We hit the post right away. Overall, I'm really pleased with the performance.
"We want to make more chances. We didn't create loads. The clean sheet is why we could nick the game.
"They made a mistake. Dwight (McNeil) got a shot on target and the centre forward is following it up."