Villains Humble Overconfident Toffees

No doubt about Everton being in top form lately.

Their 3-0 whitewash of Manchester United highlights that fact brightly.

All Aston Villa were supposed to be was an easy check-off on the Toffees' dominance list, but the Premiership's final weeks always seem to contain a surprise or two.

Especially when teams scrambling to avoid relegation are involved.

That's what they're hoping in certain districts of Birmingham and evidence was compelling as Villa took out a hard-earned 3-2 ambush over their Merseyside invaders.

Christian Benteke lit up the Villains' side of the scoreboard in the ninth minute with a classic header:

If not the prolific Belgian, then who? Right? From head to toe, he's the dude in Witton.

Talk about turning Toffees into toffs when Everton least expected it! But Villains are cagey like that. It's in their code.

Some of the skullduggery was fairly straightforward, though. As in, if a Ron Vlaar scissors kick doesn't finish the chop once, then try it twice:

Enter Romelu Lukaku. He might not be Dudley Do-Right -- hell, he's not even Canadian! -- but he'll do:

Dude looked confused on the approach. Of two minds, perhaps. Still, he fired the football equvialent of a change-up in baseball to a slugger waiting for the heat. Unconventional, but effective. In any event, Lukaku had be glad that history didn't repeat itself:

Full marks to Villa, too. They're just not that into parking like Chelsea. This crew is into offering more pop for the dosh:

Granted, that was low-hanging fruit.

Manchester United must wish they could call Tom Cleverley back. The Red Devils haven't scored in their last three games, but he has.

Then came one for the gag reel:

Even Phil Jagielka had to laugh. It'll look like a rocket on the score sheet. Unfortunately for the Toffees, though, it won't be on the triumphant side of the ledger.

And until the next match, Villa can take a big sigh of relief.