VILLA AS GERRA RD COMES OUT FIGHTING By Neil Moxley
STEVEN GERRARD was smiles better a his big selection gamble paid off.
England internationals Tyrone Mings an Ollie Watkins were benched at Bournemout on the opening day and Villa’s boss suffered wicked backlash from supporters following limp defeat.
But the duo were back in the fold an the result and performance picke up, with both players making ke contributions at either end of th pitch.
It allowed Gerrard to go o the offensive after the fina whistle.
He said: “I understan when you make decision like I did that there will b external noise. We can’ control that.
“So, if there’s any blame o responsibility, I’m the manager.
“If you want to put the outcome o the Bournemouth game my way, n problem at all.
“But let me say this: We think Tyron Mings is a fantastic footballer and he’ going to be a big help to me and the team. “He hasn’t been stripped of his place in the team. He wasn’t 100 per cent fit, so we decided to go a different way.
“He’s trained really well. I thought he was really dominant for large parts of this. As for Ollie, I thought he epitomised everything that was good about us.
“He asked questions and put more pressure on
Everton’s centre-backs. He was outstanding. Ollie
deserved his two assists and that goal deserved to be the winner.”
Gerrard was less than pleased with a late injury to centre-half Diego Carlos.
He added: “I’m extremely worried about Diego. We are gong to send him for an MRI scan. It doesn’t look good.”
Danny Ings’ sweetly struck left-foot finish just after the half-hour and Emi Buendia’s second five minutes from time looked to have sealed the points before Lucas Digne’s own goal set alarm bells ringing.
But Everton paid the price for their sloppiness in possession as they were done twice on the counter-attack.
John Mcginn’s lofted ball down the right allowed Watkins to centre for Ings to fire home and then sub
Amadou Onana was caught trying to pick his way through a congested midfield area.
A neat exchange of passes five minutes from time allowed Watkins to set up Buendia.
Onana made amends straight from the restart, firing a ball across the face of goal that ended with Digne sending the ball over the goalline. Everton boss Frank Lampard (left) said: “There was good and bad in the performance.
“It was a pretty even game apart from the goals. We have to be a bit patient.”