More Late Defensive Woes for Everton

Aston Villa 2 - 2 Everton

Everton continued its disappointing three game stretch of draws, the last two of which it blew leads late. This time, it was against an Aston Villa side that equalized in injury time by an own goal from Phil Jagielka. After beating Manchester City 2-0 away on March 24^th, Everton seemed within striking distance of the top 7 and a Europa League berth (given that Portsmouth is refused a berth). The Toffees are currently in 8^th in the Premier League, 4 points behind Aston Villa and 5 points behind Liverpool (Villa have a game in hand). While the Aston Villa-Everton match started off with equal opportunities for both sides, Tim Howard had to be called to action with a couple of quick reflex saves. Tim Cahill scored his 8^th goal of the season in the 23^rd minute with, what else, a header following a corner. Agbonlahor equalized for Villa in the 72^nd minute just to be outdone by Tim Cahill two minutes later with another free header following a corner. Everton lost the lead again in injury time with a Jagielka own goal. Ashley Young crossed into the box from left-center and Jagielka, trying to head the ball out, deflected the ball into his own net.

This was another disappointing result for the Toffees. Though I can’t be too disappointed in coming away with a point from Villa Park, I feel we deserved more. It seems we have reverted back to the ways of mental and defensive mistakes that had struck earlier in the season. The main problem seemed to be tiredness and a lack of possession towards the end of the game. While I won’t completely pin the blame on Jagielka for heading the ball into our net, I will blame the lack of pressure given by our midfielders and forwards to players crossing in balls towards the end of the game. This occurred during both goals but was more important in the second, due to the fact that Young got free vision to place his cross right in front of goal. The first goal was a good play by Agbonlahor, but I couldn’t help realize that our defenders were all out of place during his header. I remember these same problems during the beginning of the season where The Toffees would play excellent soccer for 75 minutes and collapse for 15 minutes in the middle of the second half and give up a flurry of goals. The main reason behind these collapses earlier in the season was a chemistry problem between the defenders because of all the injuries we had. The last couple of drawn games seem to stem more from a void in midfield, particularly the loss of Arteta and Fellaini. While Pienaar, Osman, and Cahill are all playing great, they all are attacking midfielders who create offensively in order to score. Heitinga was playing well in the defensive midfielders role until his injury. Rodwell played great, but he did not do what we seriously needed. He couldn’t keep possession on Everton’s side and slow down the game after going ahead. Instead we lost possession after forcing attack. Arteta would take his time to find the right opportunity to attack and until then would keep possession. This is what we are lacking late in games and we might have even held on to a victory if not for the Heitinga injury. Someone really needed to step up to be the pivot in the midfield. None of the midfielders took on this responsibility and Everton ended up with only a point. Arteta should be coming back from injury soon, but until then Moyes needs to find a player that is willing to control a game like Arteta has done in the past. If that doesn’t happen soon, Europa League qualification will slowly slip from our grasps.