Villa play spoilers and Beto misfires in first goalless encounter at the Dock

Looking at this game as dispassionately as you can, the fact that Aston Villa had won nine of the last 12 Premier League meetings with Everton and drawn the other three makes this a positive result for the Toffees. The more impatient Blue in you, however, walked away from this second top-flight match at Bramley-Moore Dock wrestling with the frustration of two points dropped and the team’s ongoing lack of a reliable goalscorer.

Beto has had his moments in an Everton shirt since joining from Udinese two years ago and his purple patch of similar goals early in David Moyes’s second tenure hinted at a striker who might finally have found his groove. Sadly, the evidence since, despite recent strikes against Mansfield and Wolves, is that the Portuguese is, to paraphrase Evertonian author Jim Keoghan, an awkward and ill fit for a team with higher aspirations than merely scrapping for survival.

With more composure from Beto in the penalty area, the Blues might have been firmly in the driving seat by half-time; were it not for Emiliano Martinez they'd surely have won it in the second period. Their play lacked urgency at times, Moyes’s men perhaps allowing their tempo to be dragged down to that of the Villans who travelled on the back of a poor start to the campaign and for long stretches of this contest appeared happy to leave Merseyside with a point.

Unai Emery’s side were were aided by the exasperatingly fussy and inconsistent refereeing of Simon Hooper whose refusal to allow the game flow played right into Villa’s hands and made for a bitty, stop-start match at times.

Everton, though, will feel as though they could and should have won their fourth game in succession and their third straight in L5 despite still grappling with the selection headache posed by Vitalii Mykolenko’s absence with a groin problem.

The Ukrainian wasn’t deemed fit enough to start and, just as he did against Leeds and Brighton, James Garner dropped back into the left-back spot while Tim Iroegbunam deputised in central midfield alongside Idrissa Gueye. Newcomers Merlin Röhl, Adam Aznou and Tyler Dibling were named among the substitutes and Thierno Barry, a starter in the previous two home games, was dropped back to the bench.

Everton started this game in the spirit of a team riding a wave of confidence and Beto found himself at the centre of three openings inside the first 10 minutes. The irrepressible Iliman Ndiaye had slipped a square pass to him from near the byline as early as the second minute, presenting the striker with a chance not too dissimilar to the one laid on for the Senegalese magician against the Seagulls but Beto couldn’t wrap his foot around it and the opportunity was lost.

The Portuguese was then foiled at the back post by an acrobatic save by Martinez, although it appeared as though there was an offside infringement in the build-up before Jack Grealish curled his inviting across in from the left flank.

James Tarkowski then floated a really inviting ball in behind the visitors’ back line but Beto mis-controlled in disappointing fashion, allowing Tyrone Mings to mop up and turn possession over.

Playing against his boyhood team, Grealish was as up for this one as he has been in every appearance so far for Everton and after he’d been fouled wide on the left and Michael Keane had headed the resulting free-kick wide, the winger forced another save from Martinez.

Emery had made the decision to recall the Argentine having resolved the spat they’d had prior to the transfer deadline and it proved a wise decision as the Martinez was arguably the difference on the day. Beto’s shot on the turn was blocked and when it fell to Grealish, he despatched a low half-volley that the goalkeeper kept out with his leg and Ezro Konsa headed it behind for a corner.

The England defender was there again in the 32nd minute to block an attempted Grealish cross behind but Keane couldn’t keep his header down from the corner as the Toffees went close to breaking the deadlock once more.

Unfortunately, in a pattern that had become all-too familiar at Goodison Park in recent years, having had the better of the opening exchanges but failed to score, Everton allowed the other side to find a foothold in the contest and it was Villa who were the stronger of the two heading into the half-time interval.

Morgan Rogers saw a shot charged down that looped into Jordan Pickford’s arms Lamare Bogarde and after Gueye had ballooned a shot into the North Stand at one end and Iroegbunam had picked up a needless yellow card for tripping Ollie Watkins at the other, Lucas Digne fired a direct free-kick into the defensive wall.

In an echo of the first half, Beto squandered a great chance early in the second as Grealish’s cross-cum-shot arrived at his feet around 10 yards from goal but he couldn’t get sort his feet out to make true contact. That was where the similarity with the first 45 minutes ended, however, because there followed a 10-minute spell where it felt as though Everton had lost control of the game.

Emiliano Buendia, a winning goalscorer in back-to-back fixtures at the Old Lady in 2022 and 2023, had Evertonian hearts in their mouths in the 50th minute when he was allowed to drive forward and his deflected shot missed Jordan Pickford’s far post by inches. Nine minutes later, Iroegbunam did well to block the Argentine midfielder’s volley from the edge of the box as Villa went in search of their first goal of the campaign.

In between, Beto had been played in again but he elected not to hammer a shot goal-wards from the angle, preferring to cut in on his left foot and was tackled but the Blues gradually began to take the upper hand again.

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s cross from the left was pushed into the path of Jake O’Brien but his side-foot effort was blocked and Iroegbunam’s follow-up deflected wide.

Then, with 18 minutes left, Hill Dickinson Stadium rose as one expecting the net to ripple as Keane leapt to meet a Grealish cross and steered it onto the target but Martinez got his fingers to the header and diverted it over the crossbar from close range.

Moyes’s side pressed into the closing stages, Merlin Röhl threading his fellow substitute Barry in down the channel but Tyrone Mings forced him wide and blocked his shot behind, Garner’s attempt to reprise his goal against Brighton was deflected over and two minutes into stoppage time, Keane craned his neck to meet one last Grealish centre but couldn’t guide it on goal.

The first goalless draw at the new stadium will deflate slightly the heady optimism that had been brewing among Blues fans after the win at Wolves but there was still plenty to admire about this performance that bodes well for the season as it unfolds.

An xG of 2.17 is indicative of the attacking impetus that continues to be a hallmark of the new Everton with Ndiaye, Dewsbury-Hall and Grealish pulling defences all over the place at times — that despite the former Villa man being double- and triple-marked at times — but Beto’s profligacy remains a source of concern. How that battle to claim the lone striker role on an ongoing basis plays out will be an intriguing aspect of the season.

in the meantime, it's a measure of how far we've come in a short space of time that a draw against a top-six side from last term like Aston Villa is viewed as a disappointment.