Match Report: Aston Villa 0-0 Everton

The English top tier’s longest running fixture ended in a stalemate in its latest installment at Villa Park on Thursday evening.

In a game of few clear cut chances, both sides kept the game in front of them for the most part, with Tyrone Mings having Villa’s best chance of the game late in the first half only to head wide from close range.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin rose up above Matt Targett as the game drew to a close to force Emi Martinez into a fine save.

The result sees Villa pretty much in a straight race for 10th with Leeds United, while Everton are now all but out of the Champions League race and now have to hope teams above them falter to get a Europa League spot. In any case, the game had an air of an end-of-season dead rubber.

Injury merry-go-round

Photo by Lindsey Parnaby - Pool/Getty Images

The season seems to be taking its toll on the players as the injury list starts to rise higher with only a few games remaining.

Matty Cash had to be replaced by Ahmed Elmohamady early in the second half for what looked to be an upper leg strain, while both Tyrone Mings and Emi Martinez had to had extensive treatment at the end of the game after a coming-together.

Meanwhile, Jack Grealish made his long-anticipated return to the field in a 20 minute cameo replacing Bertrand Traore. He performed well, Villa looking a lot more like themselves going forward as defenders levitated towards the local lad. A promising sign going forward for both club and country.