Joe Ellis

Sun 14 August 2022 19:30, UK

Aston Villa got their first win and points on the board for the 2022-23 season with a nervy 2-1 win at home to Frank Lampard’s Everton.

Danny Ings got the ball rolling in the first half before Emiliani Buendia doubled the Villa’s lead with five minutes to go. The Toffees went up the other end and bundled one home off the body of Lucas Digne to make it a tense end to proceedings.

But it could have been so much calmer had Gerrard grown the bravery to drop one of his favourites in Philippe Coutinho from the start and given Buendia the nod.

The Brazilian has been a regular starter for Aston Villa since his January arrival and his former Liverpool teammate, now in the dugout, seems scared to drop him even when he is not at his best.

As soon as Buendia came on against Everton, the whole game was changed in favour of the home side with the Argentine’s energetic movement.

In this instance, he only moved a step to find himself in a bit of space and he quickly used his very astute footballing brain to make a run into the channel where he could find some space.

His agility and surprising speed earned him his goal too as he surged out of midfield to bear down on the back four of the tiring visitors who had plenty to do on a sweltering;y hot day in the Midlands.

He could have taken on a shot himself but instead played a neat ball into the channel for Ollie Watkins to try and create that second goal that was so desperately needed.

And he managed to do just that but only because the Argentine continued his run beyond all of the defenders in yellow, who were standing still in essence, and just about slot the square ball home.

Coutinho was nowhere near as free or engaging when he was on the field and the Toffees found it rather easy to defend against the Brazilian given his one-trick pony way of playing the game.

In other Aston Villa news, The Athletic have issued a key update regarding a major behind-the-scenes rumour at Bodymoor.