John McGinn expects a ‘tough game’ against Everton

John McGinn looked ahead to the visit of Everton at Villa Park on Sunday afternoon.

The Toffees held Aston Villa to a 0-0 draw at the Hill Dickinson Stadium in September, and times have changed significantly for the Villans since that fixture. They scored their first Premier League goal of the campaign through Matty Cash in a 1-1 draw against Sunderland the next week, then beat Fulham 3-1 in their first league win of the season, and the rest is history for this high-flying side.

Villa went on an 11-game winning streak in all competitions before a 4-1 loss away at Arsenal at the end of December. The side still sit in third position in the Premier League table, just six points off the league leaders, and they advanced to the FA Cup fourth round with a victory over Tottenham, taking confidence into this week.

“It will be a tough game. They have got a lot of injuries and a couple of players away at AFCON, but we were probably lucky to get a point at Everton away, so we won’t be taking them lightly at all.

“I know the manager and the coaching staff from being Scottish, I know Jack Grealish well, Tim Iroegbunam and a few of their other players, so there are no easy games in this league. We need to be at our best again to try and keep the run going and keep climbing the table.

“We’re in a great position domestically, you never know what we can achieve there. In Europe, we are in a strong position to qualify and we have two games left in that, and then we have the FA Cup.

“It is a very exciting few months ahead but we need to take it step by step and approach it in the way we have been approaching it.”