Everton could be without four players for Aston Villa as Unai Emery shares injury update
Everton could be without four players for the visit of Aston Villa as they take to the field for their first Goodison Park fixture of 2024.
Luton Town’s controversial stoppage time equaliser at Burnley on Friday night ensured Sean Dyche’s side – who have been given a 10-point deduction, the biggest sporting sanction in the 135-year history of English top flight football – go into the game with just goal difference separating themselves from the relegation zone as they take on Unai Emery’s high-fliers. Everton ended 2023 on a low in the Premier League with a 3-0 reversal at Wolverhampton Wanderers, with Dyche acknowledging it was the first time his team had been properly off the pace since their 4-0 thrashing at Villa Park in their first away game of the season.
Since then there has been the goalless draw at Crystal Palace in the FA Cup third round which featured the controversial sending off of Blues centre-forward Dominic Calvert-Lewin following a challenge on Nathaniel Clyne. Although referee Chris Kavanagh waved play on in real time, after being invited to take another look at the incident on a pitchside monitor, he produced a red card.
The decision provoked widespread condemnation across the football world and has now been subsequently reversed with Calvert-Lewin’s three-match ban being expunged and making him available for this game and potentially the replay against the Eagles on Wednesday. The 26-year-old has mixed fortunes against Villa this term having been forced off with a facial injury in their last Premier League encounter in August following a collision with opposition goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez but then netting past former team-mate Robin Olsen, who was deputising for the Argentinian World Cup winner, in
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