It is in games like these that Everton are haunted by the failings of the January transfer window.
There were points for the taking at Goodison Park. Everton were the better side before they fell behind to Ollie Watkins' second half penalty. This was not a bad performance.
But it was a result heavily influenced by the limitations of the squad Sean Dyche inherited. Frank Lampard suffered before him. As he sought game changers against Wolves, Southampton and West Ham he had few genuine options to turn to. The transfer window offered hope that might soon change. Instead it was transition in the dugout, not the transfer market, and Dyche picks up the problem his predecessor was unable to contend with.
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As Everton trailed Aston Villa, Dyche patrolled his technical area in front of a bench that included five defenders and a goalkeeper. Demarai Gray was the only recognised senior attacking player available to him. With Ellis Simms alongside him, Dyche was already dipping into the academy to put a team out before this match was underway.
The rest of this season will be difficult, every Everton supporter knows that. To avoid finishing in the bottom three, where they have now returned, they will need to turn displays like this one against Villa into points. As shown against Arsenal and Leeds United this is a side that, under Dyche, can defend a lead. Without Dominic Calvert-Lewin, absent again as injury continues to hold him back, it cannot chase one. Dyche has sought, tirelessly, to prevent the narrative of recent weeks being solely about Calvert-Lewin. The fact that it will be is not the fault of the manager, or the supporters, or the media, but of those who were unable to bring in forward players despite Everton's January priority being attackers from minute one of September 1.
At full-time, the home crowd applauded their players' efforts. It was not vociferous but there was enough recognition of their fight for them to head to the Gwladys Street and acknowledge the fans and thank them back. For the third game in a row at Goodison under Dyche, Everton battled hard. This time they were not rewarded with a point, or three points, but before Idrissa Gueye brought down John McGinn in the Everton box they looked the more likely to find a breakthrough. Instead, Watkins converted and for the final 30 minutes an Everton side lacking options from the bench were powerless to find a way back. In the end it was Emiliano Buendia who doubled Villa's lead late on, rather than Everton providing any late heroics.
That Everton were not ahead by the hour mark is partly down to the same problem that meant they could not find a way back once they went behind - even when chances are created there is simply not the ruthlessness to make rivals pay.
With the game goalless, Neal Maupay had an effort cleared off the line amid a messy goalmouth scramble, fired tamely at Emiliano Martinez after Dwight McNeil delayed his pass to him and flashed a near post header just wide. Amadou Onana forced a leaping, fingertip save from Martinez and Everton's aggressive pressing led to several half-chances in and around the box. They came after a difficult opening 20 minutes that Villa controlled - the spell eventually broken by anger rather than ability. After forcing Villa back into their own box, Abdoulaye Doucoure was harshly adjudged to have pulled Tyrone Mings shirt as he hassled him yards from goal. Goodison erupted in frustration at referee Anthony Taylor. It was the latest in a series of contentious decisions against the home side and, when Martinez took the resulting free-kick 10 yards further up the pitch, the atmosphere intensified. That buoyed Everton, who then took an initiative that should have seen them take a lead into half-time.
Instead the chances were spurned and the main storyline of this game is not of Jordan Pickford's two impressive saves from Watkins, of Onana's bravery after a first minute yellow card, of McNeil's battling endeavour and dangerous crosses in what was another good performance from him, or of Dyche's positive run at Goodison continuing once again. It is of the failure - by others and not the new manager - to address the glaring problem everyone, inside and outside the club, has known about since the summer.
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