As Everton surrendered a 2-0 lead to lose 3-2 for the second consecutive Premier League game, the national media picked up upon such heartache becoming a continuous theme for the Blues against a backdrop of a potential takeover, with prospective owner John Textor having waded into Goodison Park matters this week.
Tom Collomosse, Daily Mail
John Textor this week compared owning Everton to being President of the United States but he may decide that the job facing Donald Trump or Kamala Harris is easier than the one that could soon be his.
For the second time in a fortnight, Everton threw away a two-goal lead to emerge defeated, this time by Aston Villa. Though this collapse was not as dramatic as the home loss to Bournemouth, who scored three times in the closing minutes at Goodison Park on August 31, it may prove no less damaging to Sean Dyche and his players. They are still to pick up a point this season
It will be no consolation, either, that it took one of the best goals of the season so far to sink Dyche’s men. Jhon Duran, Villa’s king of chaos, had been on the field only seven minutes when he scored brilliantly from distance.
American businessman Textor must sell his 45% stake in Crystal Palace to take control at Everton and he is trying to do so with the club suffering their worst start to a top-flight season since 1958.
Peter Lansley, The Guardian
To lose once after leading 2-0 could be deemed misfortune; to do so twice in succession smacks of carelessness. Not even Oscar Wilde would have come up with a script such as this but then the narrative around Everton pushes the bounds of credulity on a weekly basis.
Lee Carsley witnessed Ollie Watkins, who withdrew from the interim England manager’s first senior squad, return to action to score twice as Aston Villa followed Bournemouth’s example by giving Everton a two-goal lead before winning, this time with an outrageous long-distance shot from Jhon Durán.
Villa, who return to European football’s top table on Tuesday when they play Young Boys in the Champions League, moved level on points with second-placed Liverpool.
For Everton, however, this feels like rock bottom. But then we said that last time out, when they led 2-0 after 86 minutes. This is the first time they have lost their first four league games since 1958. Next Saturday’s trip to Leicester looks significant. Having had the third best defensive record in the division last season, they have already leaked 13 goals this term.
Everton remain vulnerable. At a club where a prospective owner can start casting doubts over his manager’s selection policy before he has even sold his shares in his current club, John Textor having asked whether Dyche was the sort to pick more sophisticated players, Everton fans are all too accustomed to things going wrong even when they seem to be going right.
ANSWERS NEEDED: Joe Thomas’ video reaction on YouTube
John Percy, Daily Telegraph
In recent times Everton have cornered the market in crisis and they are now proving the masters of self-destruction.
For the second Premier League match in a row, Everton inexplicably threw away a two-goal lead in another remarkable collapse that will only increase the pressure on manager Sean Dyche.
Everton are so psychologically frail that Dyche cannot relax even when his team appear in relative control, and this stirring fightback from Aston Villa had an air of inevitability about it.
He added: Where does Dyche go from here? Everton have lost four league games for the first time since 1958 and appear broken.
Ahead of the game Dyche was given what appeared a vote of confidence, with majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri and director of football Kevin Thelwell understood to be aligned in backing their manager.
Dyche is in the final season of his two-and-a-half year contract and there is little prospect of that being renewed until the ownership saga ends.
Quite what prospective owner John Textor will have made of this will be intriguing. Textor is talking big of his plans to buy the club, with Everton issuing a statement on Friday offering stark clarity of the situation.
Dyche spoke of watching the Bournemouth defeat 47 times on video but will surely want to steer clear of this one… Everton fans have seen this movie before.
MORE FRUSTRATION: Chris Beesley’s video reaction on YouTube
Mike Whalley, The Times
Ollie Watkins ended an early-season goal drought by scoring twice, and yet was still outshone. Jhon Durán has made a habit of coming on as a substitute to score vital goals for Aston Villa this season. He did it for the third time in four matches with a goal of breathtaking brilliance.
When the Colombia forward lashed in a long-distance winner inside the final 15 minutes, even his own team-mates were astonished. For several seconds, a television camera lingered on a shot of Villa goalkeeper Emi Martínez open-mouthed in admiration.
Thanks to Watkins and Durán, Villa had found a way when they looked set to stumble. For Everton, joy once again turned to agony. For the second match running, they were beaten after leading 2-0. They have now lost their opening four league matches for the first time since 1958.
Joe Thomas, Liverpool Echo
There may have been an acceptance Everton’s plight could become worse before it got better. But this is a club that has to stop finding new ways to shock its long-suffering supporters.
There are two ways to look at this defeat to Aston Villa. On one hand, Everton made their Champions League opponent fight for this victory.
They stunned Villa Park with two first half goals, Dominic Calvert-Lewin had several golden opportunities to swing momentum back in favour of the Blues and it took an extraordinary long-range effort to bring down a squad whose injury concerns mounted further as Vitalii Mykolenko headed down the tunnel in the first half.
On the other hand, there is much to suggest there are deeper issues that need to be addressed. Acknowledging they exist is the first step to solving them. The reality is this is a side that has lost four consecutive games in a miserable start to this Premier League campaign, has imploded in each of them, and lost from being two goals ahead for a second game in a row.
Like against Bournemouth two weeks ago, there are positives that can be taken from this 3-2 defeat. But there is a bigger pattern developing, one of defensive fragility, a loss of psychological resilience and of important, experienced players making errors that have proved costly.
The real contrast between two difficult losses separated by an international break has been that against Bournemouth the collapse was a rapid, hurtling, nine-minute crash. This one was a slow motion capitulation, one that took an hour to unfold, even if it was punctuated by opportunities.