Aston Villa manager, Steven Gerrard has hailed his players following their 1-0 win over Everton in the English Premier League on Saturday.
Argentine midfielder, Emiliano Buendia scored the loan goal of the game, heading past Jordan Pickford in the Everton goal.
The match was marred by an ugly incident, where Villa fullbacks, Lucas Digne and Matty Cash were struck by a bottle while celebrating Buendia’s goal.
“It’s a big win for us. Credit to the players. It was a different style of game for us, especially in the second half. It was a case of us having to roll our sleeves up, stand up and be counted and really put our bodies on the line.” Gerrard said in his post-match interview.
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“It’s difficult to rehearse what came our way in the second half. It was direct, it was coming regularly so we had to fight and compete and win second balls. And every single person stood up to that.
“In football there’s different ways to win. but if you’re not prepared to compete, especially away at Goodison, you’ll be found out.
“We expected Duncan to pour more fuel on the fire in the second half. We played big today and I’m really proud of the players.
“This performance was about grit, about steel. I asked the players to really commit because this game was going to ask us something quite alien which is defend long balls constantly and that’s what we did.”
The win sees Aston Villa move into the top half in 10th position, while Everton’s misery continues as the Toffees in 16th place could be drawn into a relegation fight if their bad form isn’t halted.
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