{"id":663417,"date":"2026-01-18T06:17:45","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T11:17:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=663417"},"modified":"2026-01-18T06:17:45","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T11:17:45","slug":"everton-team-news-predicted-lineup-vs-aston-villa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/01\/18\/everton-team-news-predicted-lineup-vs-aston-villa\/","title":{"rendered":"Everton Team News and Predicted Lineup vs Aston Villa for January 18"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Everton head to Villa Park to take on third place Aston Villa, who are fighting for second place in the Premier League. Meanwhile, the Toffees are looking for a win to take them up to 10th, despite a thin squad with eight key players missing. Here\u2019s the latest Everton team news and our predicted lineup.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Everton Team News and Predicted Lineup vs Aston Villa As Toffees Look To Make Top 10<\/b><\/h2>\n<h3><b>How Everton Have Lined Up Recently<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Everton were put out of the FA Cup last weekend by Sunderland, after going to penalties, with the Toffees failing to net a single shot from the spot. James Garner netted the only goal in the Cup game for the Toffees, as he stepped up to the penalty spot in the 89th minute, taking the game to extra time. Michael Keane and Jack Grealish were both unavailable for that clash after being shown red in their Premier League game against Wolves midweek.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>READ MORE: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/01\/17\/fiorentina-glory-fall-apart\/\" target=\"_self\"><b>The Collapse of Fiorentina: Investment to Relegation Worry<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In their usual 4-2-3-1, Jordan Pickford started in goal with Jake O\u2019Brien, James Tarkowski, Nathan Patterson and Vitaliy Mykolenko playing at the back. James Garner and Merlin <span>R\u00f6hl positioned in the defensive midfield, with Harrison Armstrong, Tyler Dibling<\/span> and Dwight McNeil as attacking midfield with Beto completing the lineup up front.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Everton Recent Form And Tactics<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Toffees have struggled to keep their momentum in recent games, winning only one of their last five matches. It comes as the squad faces a battle with injuries, suspensions and players out at AFCON.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The transfer window hasn\u2019t offered any relief, with no new signings being made. In David Moyes\u2019 pre-match press conference on Friday night, the Scotsman commented on the transfer window efforts, <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.evertonfc.com\/news\/2026\/january\/16\/watch-moyes--press-conference--1-30pm-gmt----follow-live-blog\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">saying<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We&#8217;re still looking. I&#8217;m not sure we&#8217;ll get anything, but we&#8217;re trying.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Injuries, Suspensions, and AFCON<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Everton have added another player to their injury list, with <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.rotowire.com\/soccer\/headlines\/tim-iroegbunam-injury-suffers-slight-injury-493689\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tim Iroegbunam<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> missing from the squad, as Moyes said the player is carrying a \u201cslight injury\u201d. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There will not be any players available to return for the fixture against Villa, with Carlos Alcaraz, Seamus Coleman, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, and Jarrad Branthwaite all still out on injury.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.evertonfc.com\/news\/2026\/january\/16\/everton-team-news-for-aston-villa-trip\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Moyes commented<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that Branthwaite and Coleman have returned to training, some positive news the team desperately need. Meanwhile <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dewsbury-Hall, Alcaraz and Iroegbunam are not fit to return just yet, as Moyes added: &#8220;They&#8217;re getting closer but they&#8217;re not training yet.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jack Grealish will return to the matchday squad after serving his one-match ban following his double yellow against Wolves. Michael Keane has served one of his three-match ban after being shown a straight red card in the same game, and will not return to the squad to face Villa.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Iliman Ndiaye and Idrissa Gueye are heading to the Africa Cup of Nations final with Senegal, so are yet to return to the squad.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Everton Predicted Lineup vs Aston Villa\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><b>GK: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jordan Pickford<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Defence: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">J<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ake O\u2019Brien &#8211; James Tarkowski &#8211; Nathan Patterson- Vitaliy Mykolenko<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Midfield: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Harrison Armstrong- Dwight McNeil<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8211; Tyler Dibling<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0&#8211; James Garner &#8211; <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jack Grealish<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Forwards: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thierno Barry<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Featured Image Credit<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<p>IMAGO \/ Sportimage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Everton head to Villa Park to take on third place Aston Villa, who are fighting for second place in the Premier League. Meanwhile, the Toffees are looking for a win to take them up to 10th, despite a thin squad with eight key players missing. Here\u2019s the latest Everton team news and our predicted lineup. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5727,"featured_media":651064,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30,13,3],"tags":[31726],"class_list":["post-663417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-everton","category-premier-league","tag-everton-predicted-lineup"],"modified_by":"Ricky Carroll, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5727"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663417"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":663421,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663417\/revisions\/663421"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}