Everton 0-0 Aston Villa: ‘Unai Emery’s side a pale shadow of last season’s European challengers’

The worry for Emery is that at no point here did they seriously threaten to alter the barren sequence that has made their start to the season so disappointing. The intensity and vibrant approach that has been their trademark was totally absent.

At this stage of last season Villa had scored seven goals and had 16 big chances, measured by Opta. This season they have had four of those opportunities in four games.

Emery tried to paint a rosy picture, but for a club of such high ambition this has been a misfiring start to a season which held – and still holds – high hopes.

The Villa manager was certainly accentuating the positive when he said: “We competed very well. The goalkeeper Emi Martinez came back and played a fantastic match.

“He saved us a lot of times. He made us confident we could play with our identity. Of course, we need defence and a lot of corners and a throw-in defence compact like we did. We need to get more confidence to play with the ball.”

Martinez was certainly back in the good books with Villa fans, who expressed their displeasure with the self-styled “world’s number one” when the move he hoped for – with United very much in his sights – failed to materialise before the summer transfer window closed.

Emery could not escape the crux of Villa’s problems and said: “Tactically we have to try to help offensively to try to get better positions.”

He told BBC’s Match of the Day: “Offensively we need more. We need to try to help out strikers, wingers and midfielders, but I’m happy because we competed and this it the first step forward.

“We are going to work and we know inside the problem we have.”

Villa started with Ollie Watkins up front, but he was an invisible figure until he was substituted seven minutes from time. This was not entirely the England striker’s fault as service was non-existent.

Emery introduced Harvey Elliott, Villa’s deadline-day loan signing from Liverpool, to introduce some pep into his side’s forward movement. He delivered a couple of darting runs, but this performance was beyond redemption by then.

Morgan Rogers, excellent for England in the 5-0 win against Serbia in Belgrade, could not exert any influence, leaving Everton keeper Jordan Pickford redundant apart from some routine handling and an attempt to unsettle Villa with some late launched clearances.

It was Everton pushing for victory, betrayed by their own cutting edge, while Villa held on for the point that satisfied Emery.

What will not satisfy Emery is that this now constitutes Villa’s worst start to a Premier League season since 1997-98.

Emery, this wily and outstanding operator, will know the problems and will try to address what is currently a glaring weakness, but he must do it quickly with an away trip to Brentford in the Carabao Cup followed by a testing league visit to newly promoted Sunderland.

Villa, on this evidence, are a pale shadow of the side who performed so well in last season’s Champions League and who came so close to reaching Europe’s elite tournament this term.