Steven Gerrard has revealed Aston Villa's plan centred around targeting Everton's starting centre-backs during the meeting between the sides on Saturday afternoon.
The former Liverpool midfielder guided his team to victory on home soil courtesy of goals from Danny Ings and Emi Buendia, despite the Blues rallying late on to pull one goal back.
Starts were handed to Mason Holgate, James Tarkowski and new arrival Conor Coady in the heart of defence, with full-backs Nathan Patterson and Vitalii Mykolenko occupying the flanks. It proved to be a challenging day for Frank Lampard's men in the end, though encouragement could be taken from Amadou Onana's impact from the bench on his first appearance for the club.
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Speaking after the game, Gerrard made clear his side made it their mission to exploit the Blues' defensive unit and reaped the rewards of their pre-match preperations. "We wanted to make it about Everton's back three and both goals have come off that," he told BBC Sport.
"A ball down the side of the centre-halves for the first goal and a great swivel and finish from Danny Ings. It was another regain and go again with Bunedia's composure, and the quality of the one-two with Ollie Watkins was outstanding, to eventually get us that important goal to get us over the line."
Convinced that the home side were worthy winners on the day, Gerrard added: "I'm really pleased with our level of performance. I felt that if we found that level of performance, there would be a different outcome to last week. I questioned our performance last week but this week, with what we've put into the game and the goals we scored, no one can challenge the outcome of the game. I thought we well deserved our win."
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