Aston Villa and Everton do not need much dressing up. Two founding members of the Football League, two clubs with deep roots and long memories, meeting again in a fixture that has been played so often it practically has its own heartbeat. Sunday at Villa Park is less a novelty and more another chapter, but it still carries modern-day weight for both sets of supporters: Villa chasing the very top, Everton trying to turn a promising season into something properly meaningful.
For Villa, the mood is about maintaining altitude. Unai Emery’s side have become one of the Premier League’s most reliable home outfits, turning Villa Park into a place where opponents are squeezed by structure, intensity and the crowd’s rising temperature. Even when performances dip slightly from their own high standards, Villa tend to keep finding ways to win because the system is clear, the patterns are rehearsed and the attacking threats arrive from multiple angles.
Everton arrive with a different kind of motivation. David Moyes has been frank about where his squad is at: competitive, organised and capable of hurting good sides, but currently stretched by injuries and international absences. He has insisted Everton must “charge on” regardless, because the table is giving them reason to believe. They are not miles away from the European conversation, and Moyes’ message is that the season still has plenty of room to be shaped. The problem is obvious too: the margin for error shrinks when the bench is thin and the injury list refuses to settle.
History at Villa Park gives the home side confidence, and it gives Everton a clear target. Villa have had the edge in this fixture in recent seasons, particularly in Birmingham, where Everton have found wins very hard to come by. That includes the recent run of league meetings at Villa Park where Villa have consistently come out on top, with the most memorable being the comeback win in September 2024 when Everton led by two and still left empty-handed. Those memories colour the stands and shape expectations.
But Everton can take encouragement from two places. The first is that their better performances this season have come when they have been disciplined, aggressive in duels and calm enough on the ball to break pressure rather than simply survive it. The second is the earlier meeting this season, a goalless draw that showed Everton can blunt Villa’s threat when the organisation is right and the focus holds for 90 minutes. Villa will see that as two dropped points; Everton will see it as proof that a plan can work.
The return of Jack Grealish adds a storyline that suits both sets of readers, because it carries emotion and tactical relevance. Grealish is back available after suspension and steps straight into one of the most charged settings of his career: a return to Villa Park as the opposition. Moyes did not hide his frustration at the red card that led to the ban, saying the player let the team down and that the dressing room made its feelings known. But Sunday is a chance for Grealish to turn that into something useful. Everton will look to him to carry the ball out of pressure, buy breathers through fouls, and turn defensive phases into territory. Villa will look to deny him touches in the pockets where he can slow the game and draw defenders out of shape.
Team news is where the match starts to feel very real.
For Everton, Moyes has said there are no players back this week and he cannot give a clear timeframe on when several absentees will return. Jarrad Branthwaite and Seamus Coleman are back training, which is a lift, but neither is being presented as an immediate certainty. Everton are also coping with the impact of AFCON, with key players away and Moyes openly acknowledging how disruptive that has been. The picture is one of a squad asked to keep collecting points while waiting for bodies to return.
For Villa, the selection picture has had its own concerns, but Emery still has a squad built to compete at the top end. Their shape is consistent: organised without the ball, sharp in transition, and increasingly confident in how they control games at home. Villa’s threat is rarely just one player. They can hurt teams through the channels, through midfield runners arriving late, and through the kind of sustained pressure that eventually forces an error. Ollie Watkins remains central to how Villa stretch opponents, while the supporting cast provide the angles and second-phase danger that make defending at Villa Park such a long afternoon.
Tactically, the match looks like a test of control against resistance.
Villa’s aim will be to establish territory early, pin Everton back and make the visitors defend their box repeatedly. At home, Villa are comfortable turning games into long spells of pressure where opponents are forced into clearances and rushed decisions. Everton’s task is to stay compact without becoming passive, and to be brave enough to play when the moment is right. This is where Grealish matters. If Everton can find him quickly after regains, they have a route to turn pressure into progression rather than simply giving Villa the ball back.
The other Everton requirement is ruthlessness. Away at Villa Park you do not get many clean chances. When the opening arrives, Everton have to take it or at least turn it into something that keeps Villa honest. That means set-pieces have to be sharp, second balls have to be attacked, and the front players have to make Villa defend facing their own goal, even if only in short bursts.
What does it mean for each side?
For Villa, three points keeps the chase alive at the top end and maintains the authority they have built at home. It would also reinforce the recent pattern of dominance over Everton on this ground, a pattern that matters in confidence terms as much as it does in the table.
For Everton, a result is about more than points. It is about proving they can go to one of the league’s toughest stadiums, with a depleted squad, and still carry threat and composure. It is also about staying connected to the European places while January bites. If Everton can take something here, it changes the mood of the next run and buys time for bodies to return and, potentially, for the club to add in the market.
This fixture has history, but Sunday is about momentum. Villa have the form, the stadium and the expectation. Everton have the return of Grealish, a manager demanding ambition rather than excuses, and a season still alive with possibility. If Villa start fast and turn it into a territorial game, their quality usually tells. If Everton keep it level into the later stages and use Grealish as the bridge between defence and attack, it can become the kind of nervy, noisy contest where one moment swings everything.
