There have been some great televised Premier League games this season but perhaps the best was Aston Villa’s home tie against Everton on Easter Sunday. With both teams battling for a Champions League place, just anyway, they needed the win to stand any chance of catching up Arsenal.

The game started at quite a pace, with Everton the ones dictating the tempo. Within 25 minutes they were two goals up and Villa were reeling. Everton’s first came through Marouane Fellaini, who has been outstanding for them this season. The Brazilian striker Jo showed some neat skills to put Villa on the back foot before the ball fell to Leighton Baines. Baines is a defender who likes to get forward and he delivered a fantastic cross into the Villa box, it was the cross that beat the keeper and all Fellaini had to do was tap the ball in.

Just three minutes later Everton had doubled their advantage courtesy of Tim Cahill, who rose highest to meet a corner kick. At this point it looked like a safe football bet that Everton would run riot as Villa had been on the end of a late comeback by Manchester United last weekend and had been in fairly poor form. This was not the case though and John Carew pulled a goal back for them on the half-hour mark, in part due to some rather suspect goalkeeping from Tim Howard.

It may not be the best football technically but as a neutral sometimes a bit of dodgy goalkeeping can add to the spectacle of the game and Tim Howard obliged all afternoon in the Everton goal. He flapped at crosses and failed to deal with corners, which kept the thought in the back of your mind that Villa were going to get back into the game.

That seemed to be the case in the opening stages of the second half as Villa dominated the first few minutes. Everton hit back though and scored on their first attack, a swift counter saw the ball fall to Steven Pienaar on the edge of the box and the South African hit a brilliant shot on the turn giving Brad Friedel no chance in the Villa goal.

That could, and probably should, have been game over but Villa just wouldn’t have it and came right back at Everton. A foul on Villa captain Gareth Barry gave Villa a free-kick in a dangerous area. James Milner stepped up and unleashed a ferocious shot past a helpless Tim Howard from 35-yards out. Another ‘must’ in any great televised game is a wonder goal and Milner had provided that with his dead-ball effort.

The score was 3-2 to Everton when one of the finishing touches was added to any great televised game, a contentious decision. Everton centre-half Joleon Lescott was judged to have fouled Styllian Petrov in the penalty area and Villa were awarded a penalty. It was perhaps a harsh decision, Lescott had headed the ball towards his own goal line and was attempting a clearance with no idea Petrov was behind him. It didn’t seem to bother Villa captain Gareth Barry though who hammered the ball home to even the score. The game was missing one vital ingredient, a winner, but you can’t have everything can you?