Everton (h) Preview
- James
- Jan 15
- 6 min read
Match Summary
Opponents: Everton
Match: #5812
Season: 2025-26
Matchday: #30
League Game: #22
Manager Game: #170
Date: Sunday, 18 January 2026
Venue: Villa Park
Kick off: 4.30 pm
Manager: Unai Emery | 🇪🇸 | Hondarribia, 2022-
Officials
Referee: Tony Harrington | 🏴 | Cleveland, 2016-
Assistants: Steven Meredith, Sian Massey-Ellis
Fourth Official: Farai Hallam
VAR: Paul Howard | 🏴 | London, 2025-
Assistant VAR: Stuart Attwell
Did you know? Harrington has refereed Villa Everton once before, but not in the League, officiating in the League Cup defeat at Villa Park in September 2023.
Referee: Tony Harrington | 🏴 | Cleveland, 2016-
🕒 13 | 🟩 W5 | 🟨 D2 | 🟥 L6 |
🕒 13 | 🟩 38% | 🟨 16% | 🟥 46% |
Cards: 🟨 22 🟥 0 | 1.69 per game |
Opposition Cards: 🟨 18 🟥 0 | 1.38 per game |
Pens: ⚽ 0 | 🥅 2 |
Last 5: 🟨 🟩 🟥 🟩 🟥 Villa have consistently come out worst in matches officiated by Harrington although maginally.
Six defeats, Five wins.
Two penalties against, None for.
1.69 cards per game for Villa vs. 1.38 for the opponents.
Although Harrington has never shown a red card to either side.
Did you know? VAR is novice Paul Howard for the third time in Villa's last five Premier League games as PGMOL continue to use Villa matches as a test bed for rookies.
Fixture History
Villa’s 235th meeting with Everton. Winning 89 and losing 83.
Total 🕒 234 | 🟩 W89 (38%) | 🟨 D62 | 🇺 (64%) | 🟥 L83 (36%) | ⚽ 356 | 🥅 355 | GD 1
Full Head to Head History: https://www.avfchistory.co.uk/aston-villa/everton
Did you know? Over 234 games between the two clubs, the aggregate goal difference for Villa-Everton fixtures is just +1.
Team News
Out:
GK Emiliano Martínez | 🇦🇷 |
DM Amadou Onana | 🇧🇪 |
DM Boubacar Kamara | 🇫🇷 |
CM Ross Barkley | 🏴 |
Returning:
CF Evann Guessand | 🇨🇮 |
Debut Squad?:
RW Alysson 🇧🇷
Gone:
RW Donyell Malen | 🇳🇱 |
Injury | 4 |
CM Ross Barkley | 🏴 |
Injury: Knee
Absent since: 3 Dec 25
Matches missed to date: 10
Last Update: 6 Jan 2026: "And other players – no Barkley, no Guessand, no Amadou."
Expected return: 21 Feb 2026
DM Amadou Onana | 🇧🇪 |
Injury: Thigh
Absent since: 3 Jan 26
Matches missed to date: 4
Last Update: 6 Jan 2026: "And other players – no Barkley, no Guessand, no Amadou."
Expected return: 25 Jan 2026
GK Emiliano Martínez | 🇦🇷 |
Injury: Calf
Absent since: 10 Jan 26
Matches missed to date: 2
Last Update: 8 Jan 2026: "He has a small injury. A small injury. I am not a doctor, but it is in his calf. Now we will check him with the doctor and hopefully in a few days or weeks he will come back ready to play."
Expected return: 25 Jan 2026
DM Boubacar Kamara | 🇫🇷 |
Injury: Knee
Absent since: 18 Jan 26
Matches missed to date: 1
Last Update: 10 Jan 2026: "Tomorrow, we will check in, and we will know something about his injury. Of course, we must be patient until tomorrow, but hopefully not a big injury. Hopefully, it will be something less than normal."
Expected return: Unknown
Other | 2 |
AM Harvey Elliott | 🏴 |
Reason: Not currently being considered for selection
CF Louie Barry 🏴
Returned from loan with injury.
Sequences
Villa's Last 5 Games: 🟩 🟥 🟩 🟨 🟩 Everton's Last 5 Games: 🟨 🟩 🟥 🟨 🟥
Last 5 vs. Everton: 🟩 🟨 🟩 🟩 🟨
Last 5 Home to Everton: 🟨 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩
Did you know? Villa haven't lost a home League game to Everton since March 2016, when we were losing to everyone and his dog.
The Opposition
Everton, hit by the new stadium curse or simply suffering under their perennially unrealistic expectations?
It didn't used to be like this, Everton, alongside Villa, were one of the bona-fide Big Six, but Sky won't want you to know that so whisper it quietly. What hasn't changed is Everton fans' ambitions exceeding the willingness of the club to deliver. The move to a new ground was supposed to have delivered the financial step change seen at Arsenal and Spurs, it will, but it will take time. Judging by recent displays at the terribly named Hill Dickinson, the fans didn't get the memo with moans, groans, boos and walk-outs aplenty.
Always a fan-base quick to turn - think Spurs and Arsenal again - this, from afar, seems premature as is the increasing noise calling for David Moyes' head.
Moyes is a very good manager. Moyes's appointment would cause riots.
Seemingly contradictory, both can be true at the same time.
The reason?
He's a very good manager with a very clear ceiling. Uninspiring football or 'pragmatic' as some would have, follows him everywhere.
Not that he's a Dyche, Nuno or Arteta, he's better than that. He's a guarantee against relegation, which for the vast majority of clubs, Everton very much included, is the sole aim season in, season out. True, Moyes won't be the one to lead Everton back to the glory days of the mid-1980s, but neither will be be the one who takes them down to the Championship.
Everton fans may not agree but they may find it's worthwhile when they play West Ham to enquire how the happy Hammers have fared post Moyes. One thing the Everton fans will all agree on is that it will be necessary to shout "Hand Ball" every few minutes through the 90.
No-one knows why they do it, no-one knows if they truly believe it, but for 40-odd years that has been their wont and it's clearly followed them from Goodison to the HD.
No other club partakes in such a bizarre habit, perhaps it's a verbal embodiment of the victim mentality with which they're so readily associated. Whatever it is, it's as pitifully irritating as anything any fanbase does up and down the land.
No wonder the fans' expectations jar with the club's ability, they simply don't seem to understand what's in front of them.
Prediction
Villa play at home for the first time in six, and are on an eight game winning run at Villa Park and are unbeaten since 1906 or something like that. Moyes won't make it easy, it will be defence vs. attack. If Grealish plays there'll be an extra edge, if just laughter from the stands at his terrible pony tail. But it shouldn't be enough to bother, what is happily, a vastly superior side. This has to be a home win. Grealish will probably assist at least one, so a 4-1 victory it is then.
Rogers or Grealish, you decide.
Poll: Rogers or Grealish?
The Boss
Unai Emery | 🇪🇸 | Hondarribia, 2022-
🕒 169 | 🟩 | 95 🟨 | 30 🟥 44 | 1.86
Unai Emery's 170th game in charge.
Highest Overall Win Rate of any Villa manager: 56.21%
Closest predecessor: 1886-26 George Ramsay | 🏴 | Management Committee: 49.55%
https://www.avfchistory.co.uk/aston-villa/manager/win-record Highest Away Win Rate of any Villa manager: 45.24%
Closest predecessor: 2006-10 Martin O'Neill | 🇬🇧 |: 40.63%
Highest Premier League Win Rate of any Villa manager: 54.92%
Closest predecessor: 2006-10 Martin O'Neill | 🇬🇧 |: 40.13%
Highest League Win Rate of any Villa manager: 54.92%
Closest predecessor: 1886-26 George Ramsay | 🏴 | Management Committee: 48.14%
https://www.avfchistory.co.uk/aston-villa/manager/league-record Highest Top Flight Win Rate of any Villa manager: 54.92%
Closest predecessor: 1886-26 George Ramsay | 🏴 | Management Committee: 48.14% https://www.avfchistory.co.uk/aston-villa/manager/top-flight-record
Lowest Loss Rate of any Villa manager: 26.04%
Closest predecessor: 2006-10 Martin O'Neill | 🇬🇧 |: 26.32%
On This Day
Did you know?
Marco Bizot 🇳🇱 could make his 10th start for Villa.
Matty Cash 🇵🇱 could secure his 100th win for Villa.
Lucas Digne 🇫🇷 could make his 130th Premier League appearance for Villa. He made just 113 in his four seasons with Everton before joining Villa.
Andrés García 🇪🇸 could make his 10th Premier League appearance for Villa.
Ezri Konsa 🏴 could secure his 130th win for Villa.
Ezri Konsa 🏴 could secure his 90th win under Unai Emery 🇪🇸 in 154 appearances.
Tyrone Mings 🏴 could secure his 30th win under Unai Emery 🇪🇸 in 56 appearances.
Lamare Bogarde 🇳🇱 could make his 40th appearance under Unai Emery 🇪🇸.
Lamare Bogarde 🇳🇱 could make his 20th start under Unai Emery 🇪🇸.
Lamare Bogarde 🇳🇱 could secure his 25th win for Villa.
Lamare Bogarde 🇳🇱 could make his 25th Premier League appearance for Villa.
Lamare Bogarde 🇳🇱 could make his 10th Premier League start for Villa.
Emiliano Buendía 🇦🇷 could make his 125th appearance for Villa.
Emiliano Buendía 🇦🇷 could make his 40th start under Unai Emery 🇪🇸.
Boubacar Kamara 🇫🇷 could make his 80th Premier League start for Villa
John McGinn 🏴 could make his 225th Premier League appearance for Villa.
Morgan Rogers 🏴 could make his 100th appearance for Villa.
Morgan Rogers 🏴 could make his 70th Premier League appearance for Villa.
Donyell Malen 🇳🇱 could secure his 30th win for Villa.
Evann Guessand 🇨🇮 could make his 20th appearance for Villa.
Alysson 🇧🇷 could make his debut for Villa
Scenes
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