Aston Villa sweep sorry Everton aside with goals from Buendía and Watkins

Everton’s diminished return in front of goal is of greater concern to Sean Dyche at this juncture than their return to the relegation zone. The contrast with Aston Villa’s potency, and the options available to Unai Emery, was stark as the dominant Ollie Watkins and impactful Emi Buendía inflicted a first home defeat on the new Everton manager.

Emery had never lost four successive matches in his top flight managerial career. A combination of an incisive second-half display from Villa, ignited by their manager’s introduction of Buendía, and Everton’s predictable toothlessness ensured that blemish remained off the Spaniard’s polished CV.

Watkins excelled throughout and opened the scoring from the penalty spot, becoming the first Villa player to score in five consecutive Premier League fixtures. Buendía, after brooding on the bench, emerged to capitalise on weak Everton defending and seal victory with a fine individual strike.

“It was an amazing reaction after losing three matches before this,” said the Villa manager, who expects to be without the injured Philippe Coutinho, missing here with a hamstring problem, for the next month. “We felt good, strong and we were focused. Of course we also needed our goalkeeper to save an action sometimes and to be defensively strong but we took our moments and we were clinical.”

Dyche could not say the same. Everton improved on their previous performance against Leeds but without the injured Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who is unlikely to return against Arsenal on Wednesday, or the reinforcements that were so desperately needed in January they lacked quality to turn pressure and promise into an end product.

The recurring flaw will have fatal repercussions for the lowest scoring team in the