Steven Gerrard delighted with Aston Villa fighting spirit
Delighted boss Steven Gerrard hailed Villa’s fighting spirit after they toughed it out to win at Everton.
Emi Buendia’s header on the stroke of half-time was enough to earn Villa a 1-0 victory against the struggling Toffees, snapping a four-match winless streak.
The visitors were forced to weather a storm in the second half as the hosts searched in vain for an equaliser, Dominic Calvert-Lewin missing a glorious chance to level when he blazed over from six yards out.
Gerrard said: “I think we had to perform in a different way, especially in the second half.
“We were challenged today by Everton, who went direct for a lot of the game.
“It was about rolling your sleeves up, standing up and being counted. I think we handled everything Everton threw at us.
“To get a clean sheet, I’m really pleased. Performance-wise we can still play better. But we were lulled into a different style of game and had to adapt, we did that really well.”
Gerrard praised in particular the performance of John McGinn, after the midfielder set the tone for Villa by winning early challenges.
The boss said: “It was important in the opening 15 or 20 minutes that we showed the crowd here that if Everton wanted a war and if they wanted a fight we were all-in and we were prepared to adapt and prepared to play that style of game.
“There's different ways to win football matches and, of course, there's an ideal way of playing this lovely game with style and control but, coming here to Goodison today, we knew collectively we would have had to show a different side to us.
“Ginny was fighting for everything. We missed him last week against United and, to have him today, showed how important he is for Villa. It was a really standout performance from John again.”
Villa’s win was marred by Matty Cash and Lucas Digne being hit by a plastic bottle thrown from the crowd moments after Buendia’s goal.
Both fortunately escaped injury with Everton later confirmed a supporter had been arrested after being identified by CCTV.
Gerrard insisted his players had not dwelt on the incident. He said: “None of the players have mentioned it. We scored at a really important time and it was important the players refocused at half-time.
“The players never let it affect them. I have not seen anything from my side. The players never made a big thing of it.”
