Ross Barkley and Romelu Lukaku each scored twice as Everton thrashed a dreadful Aston Villa, who remain stuck at the bottom of the Premier League.

Barkley had two simple tap-ins, the first after Brad Guzan saved from Gerard Deulofeu, the second following some awful Villa defending.

In between, Lukaku headed his 50th Premier League goal, then finished a wonderful move soon after half-time.
Villa are without a win in 12 games since the opening day of the season.

A tally of five points after 13 matches is their worst return in any of their previous top-flight campaigns and they remain five from safety.

Everton, meanwhile, have scored 10 goals in recording back-to-back home wins for the first time since April and climb to seventh.

If a creditable goalless draw with Manchester City in Remi Garde’s first match in charge gave Villa some optimism about beating the drop, then this was the starkest of reality checks.

Garde looked to build on the solidity of that draw, his intention clear in the early stages with Villa happy to to concede possession and keep men behind the ball.

However, the visiting defence was not up to the task of dealing with Lukaku, Barkley and the excellent Deulofeu.

Not only that, but Villa also created problems for themselves. For Everton’s third goal, no fewer than four defenders and the on-rushing Guzan failed to deal with the ball bouncing in the area, with Barkley eventually rolling into an empty net.

On top of all this, Villa showed virtually no attacking threat, with not one of their players posting an average position in Everton territory during the first half.

By this evidence, Garde faces an almighty task if he is to keep Villa from relegation.

*Excellent Everton*

Pinning this result solely on the inadequacies of Villa would be unfair on Everton, who put in a ruthless, clinical and entertaining display of attacking football.

Deulofeu tormented Kieran Richardson down the Everton right, from where the majority of the home team’s attacking threat came.

His shot, after good work from Lukaku and James McCarthy, led to Barkley’s opener, with Seamus Coleman again supplying from the right for Lukaku’s header to make it 2-0.

Barkley nipped in to take advantage of the defensive chaos for the third, but it was Everton’s fourth that was most impressive and came as their three stars linked up.

Deulofeu surged through the middle, fed Barkley, whose one-touch pass was perfectly placed into the path of Lukaku, who lifted over Guzan.