The trio of Ross Barkley, Romelu Lukaku and Gerard Deulofeu ran Aston Villa ragged to heap further misery on the relegation-threatened club.
This 4-0 loss, the first under new manager Remi Garde, confirmed one perilous and damning statistic: no Premier League club has survived the drop after accumulating just five points at this stage of the season. The scale of the challenge at hand for Garde could not be greater, despite only being five points from safety, as his claret and blue side crumbled instantaneously at Goodison Park to leave Villa staring into oblivion after their worst start in their 141-year existence.
Indeed the heavy scoreline could have resembled a cricket score had Everton needed to show up in the second half. Three first half goals put paid to that as Villa struggled to get out of their own half and Deulofeu terrorised veteran full-back Kieran Richardson down the home side’s right-flank.
Barkley opened the scoring inside 17 minutes with a simple tap-in following a poor parry by Brad Guzan and a good move from the Toffees before the 30-minute mark saw Lukaku power home a header. Some shocking defending just before half time saw Barkley add to his tally and effectively end the contest on 42 minutes.
The second half was a formality and Lukaku notched up his brace shortly after half time with his 50th Premier League goal. While Everton probably will not enjoy an easier game all season, they will be happy with the professionalism shown as they move up to seventh in the table, just six points off a Champions League place.
Garde, on the other hand, has to quickly find some quality and belief from somewhere unless Villa want to face the prospect of being cut adrift before the turn of the year.
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