One stat points to a hidden mismatch Everton can exploit against Aston Villa
Everton’s clash against Aston Villa this weekend could see Jack Grealish come back to haunt his former club due to one stat that shows how he can exploit their backline.
Jack Grealish was one of Aston Villa‘s most promising talents during his time at the club, and he emerged into their first-team to make 213 appearances for his boyhood side between 2013 and 2021.
His £100million [Sky Sports] move to Man City saw him become a key man under Pep Guardiola at the start of his time there, but he became a bit-part player last season and so Grealish was loaned out to Everton in the summer to help revitalise his career.
The 30-year-old has started excellently with the Merseyside club, with David Moyes’ side currently sitting fifth in the Premier League with two wins from their first three league games.
Grealish and his teammates now face arguably their toughest test so far as Villa travel to the Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday (13 September), but one specific factor involving the England winger could help fire them to yet another three points.
Jack Grealish could torment Matty Cash
Grealish has enjoyed some stellar early-season form at Everton, with four assists in his first three league outings as he aims to rediscover the talent he showed on a consistent basis while at Villa Park.
He is set to be key to Moyes’ side this weekend against his old club, and the statistics show that he should be able to give Villa right-back Matty Cash a hard time, with the Poland international winning just 56.3% of his duels up to now this term.
As highlighted above, Grealish sits second in the top-flight rankings for successful-take ons so far this season, and his ability to dominate his opposite number in one-vs-one situations should make it a seriously tough afternoon for Cash.
Grealish’s two assists last time out against Wolves made him the first Everton player ever to record multiple assists in consecutive Premier League matches, and he will surely want to continue his impressive performances to show his former club what they are missing.
Cash has already said how highly he rates Grealish
Cash was substituted off in Poland’s last game against Finland, but his father, Stuart, provided an update on his fitness to Sport.PL, saying: “Everything is fine with his health… it won’t affect his next Premier League match. He should be ready to play this weekend.”
He will know all about Grealish and the threat he poses down the left-wing, with the pair having previously been teammates at Villa during the 2020-21 season.
Speaking to The Athletic in 2020, when he was at Nottingham Forest and Grealish was at Villa, Cash said: “Jack Grealish is a great player. He would have had so many options last January. It would not have surprised me had he ended up going to one of the top clubs in England.”
He cited Grealish as a big influence on him staying loyal to Forest in the 2020 January window, and he also called the England winger “incredible” in a 2024 interview with talkSPORT via Birmingham Mail while naming him in as one of the three best players that he has shared a dressing room with.
It is clear that this match-up promises to be a hugely important one in the context of this clash on Merseyside, and Grealish will back himself to come out on top based on current form and the underlying statistics of their seasons so far.