Fifth-placed Aston Villa remain one point ahead of Everton in the Premier League as Martin O’Neill’s side came from two goals down to earn a 3-3 draw at Villa Park while Fulham won 3-1 at Manchester City.
Everton raced into a dominant position by taking a 2-0 lead with 23 minutes gone, Marouane Fellaini dispatching a Leighton Baines cross past Brad Frieldel and Tim Cahill then heading in Steven Pienaar’s corner for his eighth league goal of the campaign. Villa, who had taken just one point from six matches going into the game, were given hope when John Carew fired in ten minutes later to complete the first-half scoring.
Pienaar’s 20-metre strike restored the visitors’ two-goal cushion eight minutes after the restart, but the home side again responded quickly as James Milner’s free-kick found the net from even further out. The Midland outfit drew level midway through the second period when Joleon Lescott fouled Stiliyan Petrov and Gareth Barry converted the resulting penalty to leave Villa trailing fourth-placed Arsenal FC by eight points.
Stephen Ireland, who scored after 35 seconds for Manchester City in Thursday’s 3-1 UEFA Cup quarter-final first-leg defeat by Hamburg, again opened the scoring for Mark Hughes’s side against Fulham with a deflected effort after 28 minutes. But Roy Hodgson’s charges turned the game on its head after the break with Clint Dempsey scoring either side of a Dickson Etuhu strike against his former club. The success takes Fulham up to eighth while City stay eleventh.
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