Aston Villa’s search for a goal continued on Saturday, as Unai Emery’s side scraped a draw against Everton.
Here are our Scout Notes from the Hill Dickinson Stadium.
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VILLA’S GOAL DROUGHT
Aston Villa delivered yet another disappointing attacking display on Saturday, as they remain goalless for the 2025/26 season.
Unai Emery’s side generated a mere 0.41 expected goals (xG) at the Hill Dickinson Stadium, with their attacking threat, notably for the fourth week in a row, little to none.
Even the second-half introduction of deadline day signing Harvey Elliott (£5.4m) failed to galvanise them:
Morgan Rogers (£7.0m) and Ollie Watkins (£8.9m) were particularly poor, with Watkins failing to register a single shot on goal.
He managed just one touch in the Everton penalty box, too.
“We have to support him, and every player must feel comfortable. There are good and bad moments. Players go through dips in confidence and performance, but we need to find the right balance. It’s important to stay consistent – whether we’re winning or not.
“For Ollie Watkins – calm. Keep working. We’re not scoring, and the striker becomes the focus. But I’m not especially worried about him. We will score again, and he will score again.” – Unai Emery on Ollie Watkins
With Rogers and Watkins below par, Emiliano Buendia (£5.3m) was Villa’s brightest spark.
Handed his first Premier League start in over two years, the Argentine nearly broke the deadlock shortly after the break, but his effort deflected just wide of the post.
Emery will be hoping Villa’s attacking form will improve when they face Brentford in the EFL Cup on Tuesday, before travelling to Sunderland in Gameweek 5.
“Of course, offensively we need more. We need to try to help our strikers, wingers and midfielders. [I am] happy because we competed and this is the first step forward. We are going to work, and we know inside the problem we have.” – Unai Emery
VILLA’S DEFENCE/TIELEMANS INJURY
One positive for Emery was the defensive display of his team, especially that of Emiliano Martinez (£5.0m).
The goalkeeper returned to the Villa starting XI after missing Gameweek 3 due to transfer speculation, and he made two excellent stops on Merseyside, denying Jack Grealish (£6.8m) and Michael Keane (£4.5m).
It’s now two clean sheets in four matches for Villa.
“After we lost at home 3-0, we didn’t score, but we had chances, but we conceded and we were so, so fragile defensively. We conceded three goals against Crystal Palace and it was the first work we did to try to set today.” – Unai Emery
Youri Tielemans (£5.9m), meanwhile, suffered an injury in the first half.
The Belgian, who started alongside Lamare Bogarde (£4.0m) in central midfield, was substituted off at the break.
When asked about Tielemans’ injury, Emery said:
“Youri is going to be out some matches.
“Hopefully we can recover Kamara and Onana – Barkley too. But today, Lamare Bogarde helped us a lot. He did a fantastic job and I’m happy for him. Lindelof also played as a midfielder for 10 minutes. That’s the commitment we need.” – Unai Emery
GREALISH + NDIAYE “FANTASTIC”
Everton certainly had the better opportunities on Saturday, with 20 shots to seven, but they lacked a killer touch.
Keane was a constant threat from set-pieces, registering four shots on goal, while Beto (£5.4m), not for the first time, fluffed several decent chances.
Regarding Grealish, he struck a volley directly at Martinez; however, despite not scoring, he performed exceptionally well.
Pulling the strings from the left side, Gameweek 4’s most-bought player created a match-high five chances and racked up 19 penalty box touches.
In fact, just under 60% of the chances created by Everton on Saturday stemmed from his side of the pitch:
Iliman Ndiaye (£6.5m), meanwhile, overcame a knock and should have had an assist after setting up Beto.
“I thought Jack did brilliantly. I thought Ili was fantastic in the first half and I thought Jack was brilliant as well. I thought the two of them were fantastic in their ball-carrying, their one-v-one situations and are making us look a much bigger threat than we were before.” – David Moyes on Jack Grealish and Iliman Ndiaye
Ndiaye and James Tarkowski (£5.5m) both picked up defensive contribution (DefCon) points.
Tarkowski, who commanded the defence superbly, is now one of just two defenders – along with Marcos Senesi (£4.6m) – to have reached the required DefCon threshold in each of his four appearances this season.
