David Moyes comeback turns sour as Everton show the unromantic reality
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Everton 0-1 Aston Villa: Ollie Watkins’s second-half goal was enough to ensure Moyes’s first game back as Toffees boss ended in defeat. After the romance of the return, the reality. David Moyes had never given up hope that Everton would summon him back but after the years of dreaming, the three or four times he came close to the job, the night he was told he had it, only to be informed the following morning it was instead going to Carlo Ancelotti, the homecoming lacked the happiness he wanted.
![[David Moyes cut a frustrated figure on the sideline at points]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/15/21/17/SEI236095301.jpeg)
Rather, it reflected the plight that made Everton send for Moyes. Aston Villa arrived at Goodison Park having lost their previous five away league games. They departed with a victory, earned by Ollie Watkins, that took them level on points with Manchester City. Looking upwards at the Champions League places, they are in the territory Moyes’ Everton used to inherit.
![[The Everton fans welcomed him back as a returning hero, though]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/15/21/16/SEI236082530.jpeg)
When the Scot departed Goodison Park, he feared they had hit a glass ceiling because they kept coming sixth or seventh. Now they are stuck on three league victories this season, all against teams in the bottom third, only one of them in their last 12 games. This is Everton, but not quite as Moyes remembered them.
![[Ollie Watkins scored the only goal of the game as Aston Villa ended their away drought]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/15/21/57/SEI236093557.jpeg)
He is the last great Goodison manager, gone for almost 12 years, his previous game in the home dugout some 4266 days earlier. He returned waving to all four stands, in the manner of a minor royal who was keen not to neglect any of the public. The Moyesiah was back, albeit without the redoubtable side he forged. Moyes said on Monday he left a “brilliant team” behind. He does not inherit one now. This is a workmanlike group, stripped of creativity. It wasn’t effort Everton lacked against but quality, especially when trailing.
