Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert said his side "didn't deserve to lose" after Everton fought back from a goal down at Goodison Park. Leandro Bacuna had given Villa a first-half lead after some neat interplay with teammate Christian Benteke put him through on goal to slot past Tim Howard. But Everton fought back in the second half thanks to goals from Steven Naismith and Kevin Mirallas, who curled in a superb 25-yard free-kick with just five minutes left to play. A visibly disappointed Lambert said in his post-match press conference after full-time:
I thought for 71 minutes we were really comfortable in the game, before the first half we never looked really under threat. First goal was really poor from our point of view second goal I think you can hold your hand up and it's a world class free-kick, and you can't do nothing about that, but I don't think we deserved to lose the game.
Villa took the lead through Bacuna though it was against the run of play, with new Everton signing Aiden McGeady striking the woodwork early on in the first half. The statistics showed Lambert's comments were a little unfair on Everton as the Villans had only one shot on target from four attempts. The Toffees meanwhile were much more industrious with 13 shots on goal which yielded six on target, while they also finished the game with 71% possession. Everton are fifth in the Premier League following this win though manager Roberto Martinez played down his side's top four hopes this season. The Toffees are just one point behind derby rivals Liverpool in fourth and five behind third-placed Chelsea, though both have a game in-hand.
Joseph is an accredited football journalist and has interviewed nearly all of the current 20 Barclay's Premier League managers. He is also a correspondent for Bleacher Report and has written for Caught Offside and Give Me Football.
