AFTER 90 minutes, it was a Villa thriller. After 93, it had become a Villa killer.
Gone was the victory that might have transformed their troubled season. Gone the three points that would have given them hope of winning their relegation battle. Gone the chance to prove they weren’t too young, too naive and too poor defensively.
Instead, they got a reminder of the flaws that have plagued them all year. They cannot defend corners. If they could, Paul Lambert’s team would be in the Capital One Cup final. Their set-piece problems recurred yet again. “I’m sick of talking about it,” boss Lambert said.
He is sick of seeing it, too. But when Leighton Baines curled in an injury-time corner, Marouane Fellaini leapt highest and headed home his second goal. Everton had turned defeat into a draw, but their hopes of a top-four finish were dented nonetheless.
The forceful, fantastic Fellaini led the fightback. But if Everton’s comeback was made in Belgium, so was Villa’s surprise surge into the lead.
Whoever said there were no famous Belgians is wrong. They were on either side at Goodison Park. Christian Benteke scored twice, just as he did when Villa won at Anfield in December. If only they could play on Merseyside every week, they would be flying. Instead, they are floundering.
Villa’s Belgian battering ram struck after two minutes, latching on to Charles N’Zogbia’s pass, beating Johnny Heitinga with embarrassing ease and stroking a shot past Tim Howard.
But it was a game of two bruising strikers, and Victor Anichebe levelled with a goal straight out of Benteke’s handbook.
He had the upper-body strength to shrug off Ron Vlaar, turn and direct a shot past Brad Guzan.
But while Everton are used to conceding first, they are not exactly accustomed to trailing 3-1 at fortress Goodison. Yet they did. Ashley Westwood swung in a cross, Gabriel Agbonlahor leapt highest to meet it and direct his header in.
Andreas Weimann, sent clear by Agbonlahor and ballooning his shot over the bar, ought to have made it 3-1. Benteke did. Matthew Lowton exchanged passes with Weimann, whipped in a curling cross and the Belgian dived forward to head home.
“The third was a world-class goal,” Lambert said. And then Villa, embarrassed by Bradford and Millwall of late, should have gone from ignominy to ecstasy.
Lambert’s team had only half an hour to see out. They couldn’t do it. Moyes hauled off Heitinga, at fault for all of Villa’s goals, and the rather more popular Kevin Mirallas to boos from the Everton crowd. “They’re not happy with my decisions,” Moyes said.
They were happier with what followed. Fellaini exchanged passes with Anichebe and placed his shot past Guzan. The onslaught continued. Guzan denied Nikica Jelavic and Sylvain Distin before Fellaini towered above the Villa defence.
“Ron has got him and he lost him,” rued Lambert. Villa could have lost the match, too. Fellaini might have had a hat-trick, Everton all three points. “We had a chance to win it,” said Moyes.
Two points dropped? “I think so,” said the Scot. It was a result that may keep Everton out of the Champions League and could send Villa into the Championship. It was a truly great game.
And yet the outcome pleased no one.