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.
