A round-up of how the national media reported on Everton’s 1-0 loss to Aston Villa in David Moyes’ first game back
Almost 23 years on from when he was first appointed, David Moyes’ second spell as Everton manager began with a 1-0 home defeat to Aston Villa. Ollie Watkins scored the only goal of the game after half-time as the Blues were once again exposed by their lack of goalscorers.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin missed a huge chance in injury time to equalise as the Toffees failed to score for the 10th time in a Premier League game this season
Here’s what the national media had to say about the Blues’ display at the start of a new era.
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Conductor has changed but the same old tune
David Moyes was granted a Goodison Park guard of honour when he left Everton to become Manchester United manager. He deserves to be carried into the new stadium in a sedan chair if he can keep this team in the Premier League.
The homecoming party is on hold, delayed by Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins’ second-half winner. Too many nights like this will postpone the imminent house-warming party, too, leaving Everton to pray there are three worse Premier League teams. Otherwise they will christen their £500 million stadium in the Championship.
The conductor has changed, but sadly for the hosts this was the same old tune, Everton’s lack of firepower a damning indictment on the state of the squad.
Moyes has spent his first few days assessing its quality, with Sean Dyche’s farewell note so upbeat one wondered whether to re-examine the league table.
Moyes gets crash course in Everton’s vulnerabilities
The second coming of David Moyes confirmed Everton’s new manager is no miracle worker. They could do with one. Everton failed to score for the ninth time in 11 Premier League games as Aston Villa, gradually working their way back to form, punctured hopes of a new‑manager bounce at Goodison Park. Ollie Watkins struck the only goal of a tight contest, but one Unai Emery’s side deserved to win given their assured defensive performance and quality in the final third. It is a quality Everton sorely lack. Dominic Calvert-Lewin encapsulated the home side’s deficiencies when squandering a glorious chance to equalise in the 93rd minute. Unless Moyes can cajole improvement from Calvert-Lewin and the forwards he has inherited from Sean Dyche, or conjure solutions in the transfer market, Everton’s Premier League status will remain in peril. Villa, whose six-year rise from the Championship to Champions League qualification puts Everton’s decline into brutal perspective, continue to look in the opposite direction. Moyes was getting a crash-course in Everton’s vulnerabilities. He had every reason to doubt Dyche’s assertion that he left “the team in good shape”.
Romance quickly turns to grim reality as late Calvert-Lewin miss showcased all the deficiencies that persist
The applause for David Moyes had been rich when his name was read out and a guttural roar emanated from the Goodison Park crowd as his face appeared on the big screen. Yet the romance that has swirled around his return as Everton manager, the expectation he might click his fingers and spark a dishevelled squad into life soon dissipated and all that was left was the grim reality of the situation confronting him.This proved a sobering homecoming with the paucity of the hosts’ general play ensuring Moyes’s second coming fell resoundingly flat as Ollie Watkins profited from one slack moment too many to stem a run of five consecutive away league defeats for Aston Villa.
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Moyes forsook semi-retirement and walks near his home in Lytham for the pressure of trying to keep Everton in the top flight, but he is not a miracle worker. The sight of Watkins ruthlessly burying his second chance of the night summed up the squalid problems he has been bequeathed.
Three shots on target amounted to progress on their previous league game when Sean Dyche’s hand was on the tiller, but the sight of Dominic Calvert-Lewin scooping over from six yards in the 93rd minute showcased all of the deficiencies that persist.
Loss helped illustrate to Moyes the complexity of the job ahead
When the great Sir Alex Ferguson was replaced by the man dubbed The Chosen One in 2013, the Old Trafford faithful came up with a catchy chant. ‘Come on David Moyes, play like Fergie’s boys,’ the terraces urged – until things turned sour at least. As Moyes came full-circle and returned to his old stomping ground of Goodison Park more than a decade on, the feeling from the stands was more like: ‘Come on David Moyes, do anything but play like Dychey’s boys.’ The man he replaced, Sean Dyche, got his marching orders after a run where they failed to score in eight of his final 10 league games. Fans – and ultimately the owners – had become tired so Moyes had a chance to get the supporters on side early by letting his team off the leash. His problem, though, was that they played rather similarly to some of those subpar displays under his predecessor. Aston Villa were the party-poopers on the Scotsman’s homecoming as Ollie Watkins made the task at hand look a tad more difficult than it might have said on the tin. Everton had two reasonable penalty shouts in the second half and Dominic Calvert-Lewin squandered a gilt-edged chance to equalise in stoppage time – so this was far from terrible. But the problems were the same as the ones that ruined Dyche’s tenure: wasteful finishing. Moyes is not to blame for Everton’s deficiencies given the lack of time he has had on the training pitch. But this outing will have helped illustrate to him the complexity of the job ahead to lead the Toffees to their swanky new stadium as a Premier League club.
A goalscorer a must this month
David Moyes knew a honeymoon period for his return to Everton would be a big ask as he renewed vows with the club he served so well for 11 years. The Scot has taken on a team with one league win in 11 before last night and faced an Aston Villa side chasing a Champions League spot again. So an opening defeat may be a disappointment but not a surprise. There were some positive signs. It’s just the same problems persist. A lack of attacking threat, a ruthless finisher who can fire this side out of trouble. Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s late miss when The Toffees threatened an equaliser further proof of that. Moyes is no magician. It will take time to get it right but he has, unlike Sean Dyche in recent weeks, a Goodison Park behind him.
The returning manager hit all the right notes beforehand as he sprinkled some positivity around a blue half of Merseyside covered in doom and gloom all season. Moyes was also asked about Howard Kendall’s quote when he returned here in the 1990s from Manchester City. For Kendall working at other clubs were “love affairs” but Everton was a “marriage”. The second marriage for Moyes got underway but after a superb reception for his return after 12 years, was the realisation of the task ahead for the former Manchester United boss. Ollie Watkins’ second-half strike was enough for Villa to end a run of five away defeats in the Premier League and help them keep pace with their top-four chasing rivals. At the other end of the table, Everton will be looking over their shoulder for some time yet at the bottom three. This game will only sharpen into focus the need for “elite signings” as Moyes said beforehand. A goalscorer is a must this month.
What Everton supporter shouted says everything with Moyes facing problem he spent millions on
The more things change, the more they stay the same…
Almost 23 years after he was first appointed by the club and a dozen after he left, returning Blues boss David Moyes acknowledged that he was coming back to a very different Everton to the club he left, but he too had evolved from his subsequent managerial experiences.
The Scot, who was the Premier League’s youngest gaffer when as a 38-year-old he dubbed his new employers ‘The People’s Club’ in 2002, has now come back as the division’s elder statesman aged 61.
That previous 11-year spell, that produced nine top-eight finishes, including Everton’s highest ever Premier League position of fourth in 2004/05, ensures Moyes enjoys the support of the Goodison Park, “Come on Davy, do something lad,” was the cry from one Main Stand supporter after the team fell behind, but it’s also his recent pedigree at West Ham United that makes him the best man to get the Blues out of their current bind.
Even when Everton were at the peak of their powers first time around under Moyes, finding a prolific marksman often proved elusive and now more than ever, that remains the case.
Three times in as many years he broke the club’s transfer record to bring in James Beattie, Andrew Johnson and Ayegbeni Yakubu while during his final years, Nikica Jelavic enjoyed an initial purple patch, but none of them were able to enjoy longevity when it came to being an effective force up front.
