Aston Villa vs. Everton Betting Tips: Emery's side to dominate at Villa Park

The first of two top-flight games on Sunday comes from Villa Park, where Unai Emery’s side take on Everton. Both teams are looking to bounce back from opening weekend defeats and we’ve got Anthony Eadson on hand to preview the action and provide us with his best bets.

It was a far-from-ideal start to the season for Villa who were crushed by a 5-1 defeat to Newcastle last Saturday. Besides the result, Tyrone Mings and Emi Buendia suffered season-threatening injuries, joining a host of names on the treatment table in B6.

Sean Dyche was pleased with the amount of chances his side created against Fulham despite the 1-0 defeat against Fulham. The Toffees let off 19 attempts on goals in comparison to nine from Fulham, with keeper Bernd Leno making nine saves in the match. 

Besides Tyrone Mings and Emi Buendia, Villa will also be without Leander Dendoncker, Alex Moreno, Jacob Ramsey, and Bertrand Traore, while Leon Bailey remains a doubt.

For the visitors, Seamus Coleman, Dele Alli, Dwight McNeil, and new signing Jack Harrison are all out injured, while Dominic Calvert-Lewin will be assessed closer to kick-off but is unlikely to start.

I don’t think the 5-1 scoreline against Newcastle tells the full story of the game and I’m backing Aston Villa to put in a dominant display on Sunday. For my first selection, I’m taking the 5/2 with Paddy Power for the home side to win the match, record the most shots on target and also take the most corners. 

Aston Villa were exceptional under Unai Emery towards the back of last season, especially in front of their own fans where they came out victorious in all of their final seven home matches. I feel they can rediscover that form against Everton, especially when considering the light work they made of playing relegation-threatened teams at home last season. 

Emery’s men only took one shot less than Newcastle last week, with the Magpies being ruthless in front of goal. Everton is a side who are far from ruthless in the final third with a distinct lack of options in attack. The Blue side of Merseyside managed just two wins on the road last season and I fancy Villa to do a job on them here, hopefully dominating the shots on target and corner count.

At 15/2 I’ve also had a small punt on a three-pronged bet builder consisting of Ollie Watkins to score, Moussa Diaby to register 1+ shot on target and James Tarkowski to commit 2+ fouls. 

Ollie Watkins was one of the players who blossomed under Emery since his arrival in November. Watkins went on a run of 11 goals in 12 matches at the start of 2023 and he can open his account for the new campaign against Everton.

Moussa Diaby scored on his debut for Villa at St James’ Park in a game where he let off three shots with two hitting the target. With his previous employers Bayer Leverkusen, Diaby averaged a healthy 2.4 shots per game and can help take some of the weight off the shoulders of Ollie Watkins when it comes to goals this season.

Rounding off the 15/2 treble is James Tarkowski to give away two or more fouls. Everton’s centre-half was shown six yellow cards last season and 11 in his final campaign with Burnley. Tarkowski gave away three fouls against Fulham last week and averaged over a foul a game away from home in 2022/23.