Everton 1, Aston Villa 1: Mat Kendrick's big match verdict

Nov 2 2009 by Mathew Kendrick, Birmingham Mail

James Collins couldn’t dispossess Yakubu and the loose ball fell to Bilyaletdinov, who escaped the attentions of Cuellar to fire in a shot which Brad Friedel saved but failed to stop.

It was frustrating for Friedel, who had hoped to celebrate his remarkable record of 200 consecutive Premier League games with a clean sheet after reclaiming his No.1 jersey from Carling Cup penalty king Brad Guzan.

But it was their American compatriot, Tim Howard, who was picking the ball out of the net seconds after the re-start as Villa kept the parallels rolling to restore parity through super-sub John Carew.

Everton’s biggest threat was Yakubu, who nodded wide from Johnny Heitinga’s cross before the break and went close with another header and a mistimed overhead kick in the second half.

So O’Neill decided to fight firepower with firepower, sending on his own burly battering ram and matching up the hosts’ Nigerian with the visitors’ Norwegian.

And, while Yakubu made an impressive return from injury after a lay-off of almost a year, Carew celebrated his return to the scoresheet with his first Premier League goal of the season. Ashley Young found Warnock on the overlap and when his cross led to a deflected Gabby Agbonlahor shot which Howard saved, Carew rolled in the rebound with Distin standing powerless on the line.

O’Neill admitted the substitution was enforced rather than inspired because Everton, whose casualty list wasn’t as severe as their pre-match sob stories suggested, gave Villa injury problems of their own. Admittedly, the Toffees were still missing the likes of Mikel Arteta, Phil Jagielka, Phil Neville, Leon Osman and Steven Pienaar, but O’Neill could now be without James Milner (calf) and Stiliyan Petrov (shin).

Petrov, who led by example during a characteristically committed captain’s display, limped off clutching his leg after a nasty foul from Bilyaletdinov with the Russian rightly red-carded for clattering in with his studs showing.

But Cuellar could consider himself extremely hard done-by when, to even it up, the Spaniard was harshly sent off for a ball-winning tackle on Yakubu which was even more innocuous than his first-half challenge on Leighton Baines. So, true to form it was honours and dishonours even.

Of course, the edge Everton under Moyes have over O’Neill’s Villa is that not only are they the only club in recent years to break the top four, but they have also made it to a cup final.

Achieving either or both of those feats this season and in coming years is the only way Villa can prove to the world that they are more equal than their Goodison doppelgängers.