England’s most played fixture set for centre stage as Everton play host to Aston Villa

A fixture that has become synonymous with the English game between the founding fathers of the original football league, Everton host Aston Villa at Goodison Park in Saturday’s late kick-off.

Plenty of memorable clashes between the Toffees and Villans have been played out at the home of Everton, however, for Villa fans, the one that comes to mind will be that 3-2 win back in December 2008. Steve Sidwell’s rocket and an Ashley Young brace cancelled out Joleon Lescott’s double, despite Everton levelling in the 93rd minute, it didn’t prevent Young from capitalising on a mistake from their opponents defence.

13 years and 61 goals later, the curtains open for the first fixture this season between both sides. Seven points separate the two sides ahead of this clash, despite both clubs vying for top spot when the season started. Hailed as the ‘Cazoo derby’, we’re set for another cracker under the lights at Goodison Park.

With hopes of securing Europa League football, Everton will look to build upon their away win in the capital against Arsenal. Six games remain of the season and Carlo Ancelotti’s side appear as if they’ll qualify for the newly formed Europa Conference League this season.

Abdoulaye Doucouré and Jean-Philippe Gbamin are set to be missing from action this weekend due to injury, meanwhile for Aston Villa, Jack Grealish is side-lined for the eleventh game in a row as well as Trezeguet who has been ruled out of action for the rest of the season.

Everton’s home form recently has been below par, however, Ancelotti’s men will look to dampen the spirits of their visiting Brummies’. Toffees full-back, Luca Digne, has called for the side to be braver and bolder in order to resurrect their home form in order to bring European nights back to Goodison Park.

Ross Barkley will be in contention of starting against his former club, the Chelsea loanee left his boyhood club in 2018, swapping Merseyside for London. The 27-year-old scored 21 times in 150 appearances for Everton before his £15,000,000 move to Stamford Bridge.

However, coming to the West Midlands on loan to Villa hasn’t panned out exactly as both parties would’ve liked. With Dean Smith’s ‘promise’ to Barkley that he’d make the Euro’s looking far from reality – a loan spell which held much aptitude. The 27-year-old will be returning to Chelsea at the end of the season, with no permanent offer on the table from the Villans, the Liverpool born man will look to fight for a spot under Thomas Tuchel next season.

For the first time in years, Aston Villa have nothing to play for as such. With safety confirmed weeks before the end of the season and not a glimmer of hope for European football, supporters of the club can once again be content with the direction the club is heading in.

It’s fair to say in the second half of the season things on the pitch haven’t gone as planned, however, it’s off the pitch where the club is thriving. Following on from Jack Grealish, John McGinn, Tyrone Mings, John McGinn and Ezri Konsa all signing new contracts at the club, Matt Targett becomes the latest addition to this growing list. The full-back has signed a deal penning him down to the Villans till 2025.

For a club that was once under the wrath of Randy Lerner and Dr Tony Xia, the sky is the limit under Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens.

Seb Mannell will be at Goodison Park for the country’s most played fixture, however, as part of our stance against racial abuse and social media boycott – there will be no live updates from the fixture.

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