Everton missed the chance to put pressure on their European qualification rivals as they were held to a goalless draw at Aston Villa.
Villa's Tyrone Mings missed the best clear goal-scoring chance of the first half, sending a header flying wide from Douglas Luiz's cross on 17 minutes.
Ben Godfrey's on-target volley from a free-kick for Everton was beaten out by Emiliano Martinez seven minutes after the break, before Anwar El Ghazi's powerful free-kick was saved by Jordan Pickford at the other end.
Substitute Andre Gomes had an immediate impact for Everton but sent one shot over the bar and had another blocked. Jack Grealish was introduced off the bench after recovering from injury but could not find the breakthrough for Villa.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin came close to breaking the deadlock late on but his downward header was well saved by Martinez.
Everton stay eighth on 56 points, two points behind sixth-placed West Ham United, while Aston Villa are now 11th on 49.
See: Aston Villa report | Everton report
Next fixtures
Aston Villa: 16 May v Crystal Palace (A)
Everton: 16 May v Sheffield United (H)
Match officials
Referee: Martin Atkinson. Assistants: Dan Cook, Constantine Hatzidakis. Fourth official: Craig Pawson. VAR: Graham Scott. Assistant VAR: Nick Hopton.
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