Everton come into their home clash with Aston Villa on Saturday in the midst of a mini form-slump, having gone five games without a win in all competitions. In David Moyes’ defence, he has been struggling to overcome an injury crisis so deep that no fewer than eleven first-team regulars were unavailable for the midweek Carling Cup tie with Tottenham.

The likes of Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, Joseph Yobo, Leighton Baines and Leon Osman could all miss Saturday’s clash with Villa and leading scorer Louis Saha is also a doubt after being replaced at half-time against Spurs.

Lucas Neill, however, pulled up well after his first start for his new club against Bolton last weekend and the Socceroo skipper will play a key role in what is likely to be makeshift back four against Villa.

The Toffees’ poor run has seen them tumble to within three points of the relegation zone and they will have to improve markedly if they are to buck that downward trend at the expense of a Villa side who have lost just one of their last eight Premiership games.
In sharp contrast to his opposite number, Martin O’Neill has no fresh injury concerns ahead of Saturday’s trip to Merseyside and in fact has the luxury of established stars such as Emile Heskey, Luke Young and Nigel Reo-Coker all battling to force their way back into his starting eleven.

Brad Guzan also showed that Villa have strength in depth in the goalkeeping department with his penalty shoot-out heroics in the midweek Carling Cup victory at Sunderland.
Now up to seventh in the table and with an impressive record of just one defeat in their last five visits to Goodison Park, Villa will head north full of confidence and if James Milner and Gabriel Agbonlahor are in the mood, a third away victory of the campaign should be within their grasp.

Prediction: Everton 1-2 Aston Villa