Aston Villa vs Everton LIVE: Unai Emery looks to bounce back from heavy Newcastle defeat – kick-off time, team news and how to follow

Premier League football returns to Villa Park this weekend as Aston Villa host Everton this afternoon.

Unai Emery’s side were heavily beaten by Newcastle in their opening campaign of the season and they will now be keen to bounce back. 

They face Sean Dyche’s Toffees who also got off to a poor start, losing 1-0 at home to Fulham in their first game of the campaign. 

Both Emery and Dyche will be out to prove that their sides are better than what they showed in their previous defeats.

Aston Villa vs Everton: How to follow 

This Premier League clash will take place on Sunday, August 20. 

Kick-off at Villa Park is scheduled for 2pm. 

The game will be broadcast live on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Premier League. 

talkSPORT will also provide updates of all the action. 

To tune in to talkSPORT or talkSPORT 2 through the website, click HERE for the live stream.

You can also listen via the talkSPORT app, on DAB digital radio, through your smart speaker and on 1089 or 1053 AM.

Aston Villa vs Everton: Team news 

Aston Villa have already lost two players with ACL injuries. 

Tyrone Mings suffered a serious knee injury in the first half against Newcastle while Emiliano Buendia was injured in training. 

Pau Torres is likely to take Mings’ place in defence while Lucas Digne may not be involved with the left back linked with a move away. 

As for Everton, Neal Maupay led the line during their 1-0 defeat at home to Fulham on the opening weekend. 

However, he is likely to lose his place to Dominic Calvert-Lewin who has been building up his minutes behind closed doors and could be set to return at Villa Park.

New signing Arnaut Danjuma may also be handed his first start for the Toffees while Seamus Coleman and Dwight McNeil remain out injured. 

Aston Villa vs Everton: What has been said? 

Speaking after his side’s heavy defeat on the opening weekend of the season, Villa boss Emery called on his side to react against Everton, 

“I’m disappointed,” he said. “I’m also disappointed with the two injuries we’ve had to Tyrone Mings and Emiliano Buendia. 

“To lose 5-1 is not good for us and we played not deserving to lose 5-1, but a lot of things happened in 90 minutes.

“We were playing in the first half, more or less, with the possibilities to react and come back. The second half as well we started with control of the game, but their transition was very powerful with speedy players.

“We didn’t control the last 30 minutes like we needed to do. It’s three points and we’re going to think about our reaction over the next week. We’re going to analyse the match and prepare the next match at home.

“Our structure was strong and our mentality was going up, and today we lost one match with a bad result and we lost two players.

“We’re going to stand up and recover our power.”

Aston Villa vs Everton: Match facts 

• In Everton’s first game of the season against Fulham, Ashley Young became the Toffees’ oldest outfield Premier League player (38 years, 34 days) since Richard Gough in 2001, who was 39. Young has more Premier League assists at Villa Park than any other player (28), with one of those coming as an opposition player for Man Utd in 2014-15.
• Moussa Diaby scored Aston Villa’s goal in their 5-1 defeat to Newcastle in their opening Premier League game this season. Only four players have scored in their first two Premier League appearances for Villa – Dalian Atkinson (1992), Dion Dublin (1998), Ross Barkley (2020) and Danny Ings (2021).
• Neal Maupay had the joint-most shots (4), the most shots on target (3) and registered a higher xG (1.35) than any Everton player in their 1-0 defeat to Fulham. Maupay has now failed to score in his last 26 Premier League appearances, attempting 29 shots (17 on target) and having an xG of 5 across those games.
• Aston Villa faced 13 shots on target in their loss to Newcastle in their opening league match of this season, their most in a Premier League game since December 2012 vs Chelsea (15). In his 563 matches managing in Europe’s top-five leagues, Unai Emery has only seen one of his teams face more in a game once, with Barcelona having 15 shots on target against his Valencia side in February 2012.
• Everton had an xG of 2.73 in their 1-0 defeat to Fulham, their second-highest expected goals total in a Premier League game under Sean Dyche. It was the highest expected goals tally by a team who failed to score since Newcastle against Crystal Palace in September 2022 (2.83).
• Aston Villa ended last season on a seven-game home winning run in the Premier League. The Villans last had a longer home winning run in the league between September 1989 and February 1990 (nine).
• Everton lost 1-0 to Fulham last Saturday in their first Premier League game of the season. The Toffees lost their first two games last season, last starting a league season with two defeats in back-to-back campaigns in 1955-56 and 1956-57.
• Aston Villa lost 5-1 to Newcastle in their opening league game of the season, their heaviest defeat in their first game since 1985-86 when they lost 4-0 to Man Utd. They last lost their opening two league games of the season in 2019-20.
• Everton have lost their last four Premier League games against Aston Villa – they’ve never lost five in a row against the Villans in their league history.
• Aston Villa are unbeaten in their eight Premier League meetings with Everton since their return to the division in 2019 (W6 D2), having lost five of their previous six against the Toffees before this.