Aston Villa host Everton in Villa Park return
Aston Villa will host Everton on Saturday afternoon for their first home fixture of the 2022/23 Premier League season.
Fresh off a disappointing 2-0 season-opening loss at Bournemouth last weekend, Villa look to right the ship at Villa Park in what remains England’s most-played fixture in history.
Manager Steven Gerrard said of last week’s debacle: “We were disappointed with the level of performance we gave. In this league, you can’t get away with that – it doesn’t matter who you play. You need to be at it every single week.
“What I would say is that we’ve responded well in terms of training and preparation going into this week. We’re at home [Saturday] in front of a full house at Villa Park, so I’m wanting the players to go out and be positive and brave.”
Everton were outplayed and defeated, 1-0, by Chelsea last weekend are also be hungry to register a first win of the season on Saturday.
Since their defeat a week ago, Everton signed England international Conor Coady on loan from Wolves in a bid to deepen Lampard’s options in defense. The manager said on Friday that Coady was available for selection at Villa.
In 226 meetings with Everton across all competitions, Villa have won 84 times, drawn 60, and lost 82. Villa took all six points from the Toffees in Premier League action last year and secured a memorable 3-0 victory at Villa Park on September 18.
Matty Cash and Leon Bailey tallied in that fixture, and, ironically, Lucas Digne was credited with an own goal.
Saturday’s match will mark the first time former England teammates Gerrard and Lampard square off as managers. As players, the two played one another 34 times, with Lampard securing 16 wins to Gerrard’s 11.
Aston Villa vs. Everton team news
Tyrone Mings and Emi Buendia, who both picked up knocks in the lead up to last week’s fixture at Bournemouth, have been cleared and are available for selection on Saturday.
Other than Kortney Hause, who began training this week, Gerrard has a healthy squad to choose from.
Whether or not he makes changes to the squad is yet to be seen. Gerrard may turn to Mings or Calum Chambers in central defense, or perhaps Douglas Luiz starts alongside John McGinn in the midfield place that Jacob Ramsey inhibited at the weekend.
Some supporters are calling for Buendia to start ahead of Philippe Coutinho, who had a very poor showing at Bournemouth. Ollie Watkins is likely to start up top over Danny Ings.
For Everton, new signings Coady and Amadou Onana are available to Lampard. Coady is likely to start with Yerry Mina and Ben Godfrey out with injuries.
Aston Villa projected Starting XI: Martinez; Cash, Konsa, Carlos, Digne; Kamara; McGinn, Douglas Luiz; Bailey, Watkins, Coutinho
Everton projected Starting XI: Pickford; Holgate, Coady, Tarkowski; Patterson, Doucoure, Iwobi, Mykolenko; Gordon, Rondon, McNeil
Date/time: Saturday, August 13 at 12:30 PM BST/7:30 AM EST
Ground: Villa Park
Referee: Michael Oliver
TV/Streaming UK: BT Sport 1
TV/Streaming US: USA
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