EVERTON’S manager, David Moyes, must order more meals by numbers as he counts the cost of further depletion of his ranks. He confessed beforehand that through his club’s indifferent sequence he had swapped “a nice meal out and a bottle of wine” with his wife on a Saturday night for Chinese takeaways with the curtains pulled.

Without victory in six games in all competitions and languishing precariously just four points above the relegation places, his mood will not have been helped by the loss of midfielder Diniyar Bilyaletdinov for three matches. The Russian, having established an Everton lead seconds before the interval, was dimissed with a straight red three minutes from time after a late challenge on Stiliyan Petrov, which led to the Villa captain going off.

Villa full-back Carlos Cuellar joined Bilyaletdinov in incurring referee Lee Probert’s displeasure two minutes later for a second bookable offence, a foul on Yakubu. While this may suggest this contest was riven with sufficient feeling and intrigue to match last year’s meeting here, won 3-2 by the visitors, that would be far from the truth. This is the most-played fixture in the top flight and the 189th edition was easily forgotten.

Martin O’Neill confirmed that Petrov’s condition was “not so clever” and added: “It was a really nasty challenge.” Moyes said Bilyaletdinov “arrived a little bit late, but I’ve seen challenges like that on our players where nobody’s been sent off.”

O’Neill can feel gratified that his team lie only a point off fourth-placed Tottenham but these are unsettling times for Moyes. He had claimed that he doesn’t forget it if people don’t perform, sounding like Mr Mackay in Porridge, the character who declared: “I bear grudges, Fletcher.” The reality here was that with so many personnel absent, it was not endeavour that failed Everton, but quality.

A Marouane Fellaini drive and a Yakubu header were all Everton had to offer in the first 45 minutes of torture for their supporters. A volley just wide from Stephen Warnock, earlier cautioned when the culprit was actually Petrov, was the sum of Villa’s efforts. In stoppage time, Tim Cahill whipped in a cross, Yakubu allowed the ball to drift away from him, but Bilyaletdinov nipped in to steer the ball home. The name didn’t exactly roll off the PA announcer’s tongue but it allowed the home faithful to dream.

The lead was cancelled out almost immediately. John Carew emerged after the break for the injured James Milner and scored with his first touch, once Tim Howard parried Gabriel Agbonlahor’s effort into his path. Thereafter the contest barely improved. Everton came closest when a Yakubu rocket went wide but neither manager could claim his side deserved to win.

Star man: John Carew (Aston Villa)

Yellow cards: Everton: Cahill Villa: Warnock, Cuellar, Carew

Red cards: Everton: Bilyaletdinov Villa: Cuellar

Referee: L Probert

Attendance: 36,648

EVERTON: Howard 6, Neill 6, Yobo 7, Distin 6, Baines 6, Cahill 7, Heitinga 6, Rodwell 7, Bilyaletdinov 6, Fellaini 6 (Saha 72min), Yakubu 7 (Jo 90min)

VILLA: Friedel 6, Cuellar 7, Collins 7, Dunne 6, Warnock 7, Milner 5 (Carew h-t, 8), Sidwell 5, Petrov 7 (Reo-Coker 90), Young 6, Heskey 5, Agbonlahor 6