By Chris Kirwan
April 25 2003

The Blues need to put the disappointments of the Easter weekend behind them, and pick up maximum points from the visit of Aston Villa.

With Blackburn ready to pounce should the Blues falter, victory is a must against a rejuvenated Villa side. With the visit to Fulham and a home game against Manchester United the other remaining fixtures David Moyes will realise the importance of gaining the 3 points. He stated:

“The players will be really determined now, but we are only three points ahead with three games to go.

“It will be a big thing for us to be back in Europe, it's a long time since we've been there and it's something the players can be proud of, that we are still in with a chance.”

The midfield looked a lot more solid against Chelsea, and I believe Li Tie and Gemmill earned their places for this weekend’s game. It’ll be interesting to see if Moyes recalls the fit again Pembridge and moves Naysmith to left back where he looked good against Chelsea. But the main debate once again surrounds the forward positions. Radzinski is unlikely to be fit, so Moyes may be forced into playing Rooney despite the desire to rest him.

After loitering near to the relegation zone for a while Villa have put together a solid run of results, and are unbeaten in five games beating Chelsea and drawing away at Newcastle most recently. But they will be hit hard by the loss of Gareth Barry to a two game suspension. Barry has been excellent this season, but has inexplicably been ignored by England. He could be replaced by Whittingham (youngster Phil, not Guy unfortunately).

It will no doubt be another of Everton’s traditionally tight games, probably decided by the odd goal. Hopefully the Blues can get the show back on the road and put a bit of space between themselves and Blackburn. Perhaps it’ll be won by a late goal by one of our Villa 'legends' Unsworth or Watson.

Team news from www.evertonfc.tv: “Rooney will start”