Aston Villa have made a relatively strong start in the Premier League and they will have earmarked Saturday evening’s home game with Everton as an excellent opportunity to secure their first home win of the season.

Unai Emery’s side have already beaten both West Ham and Leicester and they pushed Arsenal all the way before succumbing to a 2-0 defeat. In contrast, Everton were blown away by both Brighton and Tottenham before surrendering a 2-0 lead to lose 3-2 to Bournemouth.

While Villa were turned over in their last home game, there’s no shame in tasting defeat when taking on a team as good as Arsenal, not to mention their overall home record under Emery makes for impressive reading.

The Villans have lost just four of their last 27 top-flight fixtures in front of their own supporters, collecting maximum points from 19 of those contests. One of those victories was a resounding 4-0 win over Everton last term and the hosts should once again prove too hot to handle for the beleaguered Blues.

Ashley Young could come back into the Everton team on Saturday evening and he looks like a solid selection to commit a minimum of one foul. The 39-year-old was shown a straight red card in the Blues’ 3-0 loss to Brighton on the opening day of the season.

The versatile veteran’s only other appearance this season was a 23 minute run out from the bench against Doncaster in the EFL Cup, yet he still managed to fall foul of the referee twice.

Young has averaged over one foul per-game across each of the last three Premier League seasons, making him a prime candidate to give away at least one free-kick at Villa Park.

He should be operating in the same area of the pitch as Aston Villa’s John McGinn, who has already been fouled nine times in the Premier League this season.

As already alluded to, the aforementioned John McGinn has a habit for drawing fouls from the opposition, making him an appealing option to earn two or more free-kicks against Everton.

No Aston Villa player has been fouled more than McGinn across the opening three weeks of the Premier League season, with the Scotsman’s fouls drawn tally currently sitting at nine. That figure includes four against Arsenal at Villa Park on matchday two, as well as three against West Ham and then two at Leicester last time out.

Quite astonishingly, McGinn was fouled five times in each of Scotland’s two recent Nations League defeats to Poland and Portugal, so two or more should be well within range against a struggling Everton side and likely direct opponent Ashley Young, who was averaging 1.35 fouls per 90 in the top-flight last term.

As a key cog in the Aston Villa engine room, Youri Tielemans combines his creativity with a combative edge, the latter of which often leads to the Belgian committing fouls. Tielemans has committed a minimum of one foul in each of his three appearances for Villa this season, including two against Arsenal.

That trend carried on to the international stage when representing Belgium in the Nations League, with Tielemans giving away a combined total of three free-kicks in games against both Israel and France.

On top of this, he was averaging 1.22 fouls per-game in the Premier League last season, so a solitary foul is to be expected in what should be an intense midfield battle with Everton’s tough-tackling duo Idrissa Gueye and Tim Iroegbunam.

Morgan Rogers was fouled twice during Aston Villa’s 2-1 victory over Leicester and the same selection looks worth siding with on Saturday evening. The 22-year-old forward has earned plenty of plaudits for his performances across the opening three rounds of the Premier League season.

Rogers’ primary strengths lie with his dribbling and running ability, both of which have seen him on the receiving end of some rough treatment from Villa’s opponents this season. Not only was Rogers fouled twice against Leicester, but he has also earned his side free-kicks against both West Ham and Arsenal.

Therefore, Rogers should prove to be a real handful for an ageing Everton defence that is likely going to be marshalled by James Tarkowski and Michael Keane, both of whom were averaging north of one foul per-game in the Premier League last season.

Sticking with the aforementioned Morgan Rogers, he also merits consideration to register at least one shot on target. While he has yet to open up his account for the season, it hasn’t been for the want of trying.

Rogers has racked up five attempts on goal across his three appearances this term, one of which was an on -target effort. Given Everton’s current predicament and the fact they have shipped a league-high 10 goals to date, this fixture could represent a good opportunity for Rogers to at the very least work Toffees stopper Jordan Pickford.

Sean Dyche’s side have given up a combined total of 19 shots on target across their opening three top-flight fixtures of the campaign.

After departing Aston Villa for Everton over the summer, Tim Iroegbunam will return to his old stomping ground on Saturday evening. The 21-year-old midfielder has certainly been throwing his weight around across his first three top-flight appearances for the Blues.

Only two other players have committed more fouls than Iroegbunam at this stage of the Premier League season, with the Toffees midfielder totting up nine offences thus far, picking up one yellow card in the process.

Furthermore, he also tackled his way into the referees notebook during Everton’s 3-0 EFL Cup win over Doncaster, giving away three set pieces on that particular night. Iroegbunam will be determined to prove his worth against his former employers this weekend and he looks worth backing to fall foul of referee Craig Pawson at least twice.

He is expected to cross paths with former Everton man Amadou Onnana, who has been fouled five times in three Premier League games this season so far.

Lamare Bogarde was handed his first Premier League start for Aston Villa against Leicester and he is likely to remain in the side for the visit of Everton this weekend.

One notable takeaway from the Dutchman’s debut was that he committed three fouls, making a solitary misdemeanour worthy of support on Saturday evening. Bogarde was a serial offender on the foul front whilst out on loan at Bristol Rovers during the first half of last season, where he was averaging 1.42 fouls per-game.

If given the nod on Saturday evening then he can expect a stern test from expected direct opponent Dwight McNeil, who has been fouled twice in each of Everton’s last two Premier League matches.