Aston Villa bounced back from their opening day Premier League defeat with a resounding 4-0 victory at home to Everton.
John McGinn got his side off to a good start midway through the first half before Douglas Luiz converted a penalty soon after, to double their advantage.
After a number of injuries that saw Everton forced into changes, Villa made their dominance count in the second half and extended their lead through Leon Bailey and Jhon Duran.
The result sees Aston Villa push aside any thought of their poor opening day performance with the scoreline even managing to cancel out their negative goal difference.
Meanwhile Everton already look in a precarious position as they sit bottom of the league after two games and they know their next two games against Wolves and Sheffield United respectively will be crucial.
Story of the Match
After their surprising 5-1 defeat away at Newcastle United on the opening weekend of the new Premier League season, Aston Villa manager Unai Emery made just one change to his side with Pau Torres coming in to make his full debut replacing the injured Tyrone Mings. It was also set to be a special game for left back Lucas Digne who was making the 300th league appearance of his career and it was coming against his former club.
Everton also lost their opening game of the season as they slipped to a 1-0 defeat at home to Fulham. However, they were lifted ahead of this game with the news that striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin was fit enough to make his first start of the season and he replaced Neal Maupay. There was also two former Villans in the Toffees side as Ashley Young and Idrissa Gueye started for Everton.
Villa's intentions were clear as soon as they kicked off as they looked to put last Saturday's defeat behind them and they were on the front foot inside the first minute as Digne forced a corner with his deflected shot.
Everton's pre-match boost of optimism at seeing Calvert-Lewin named in the starting lineup soon dissipated after he collided with goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez inside the first ten minutes which saw him need treatment but fortunately he was able to continue.
The home crowd really roared their side on in the first half as the Villans attacked towards the Holte End in the first half and the noise level went up a notch when John McGinn opened the scoring after just 17 minutes.
After some neat buildup play in midfield Moussa Diaby picked the ball up and did really well to get the ball out wide to Leon Bailey who got to the byline and pulled the ball back to McGinn who was inside the six yard box to put his side ahead.
In the opening quarter of this match, Everton really struggled to deal with Aston Villa's short corner routines and they were cut out again just four minutes after they went behind.
After working the ball out to the right from the corner, Bailey had a free header in the box that Ollie Watkins hooked towards goal. The effort from Watkins was cleared off the line but the referee judged that Pickford had taken out Watkins as he came for the ball and gave a penalty. Douglas Luiz took responsibility and found the bottom corner to double his sides lead.
Calvert-Lewin had been incredibly quiet since his collision with Martinez and when he went down again just after the half hour mark his game was over. Arnaut Danjuma came onto replace the striker meaning that Calvert-Lewin still has not completed a full ninety minutes since the first month of the year.
Danjuma did have a bit of an impact going forward and had Everton's best chance of the half as the clock ticked into nine minutes of injury time but his shot was kept out by Martinez to preserve his sides two goal advantage at the interval.
Sean Dyche rolled the dice at the interval by bringing on young Lewis Dobbin who spent last season on loan in League One. Dyche was then forced into another substitution just four minutes into the second half as Alex Iwobi went down with an injury and had to be replaced by Maupay.
Just after that enforced change for The Toffees, Villa put the game beyond doubt when they caught out a sleeping Everton defense. Villa took a throw in quickly and launched it into the box and it fell to Bailey who was the only alert player in the box and he put the ball through Pickford's legs to give Villa a seemingly unassailable lead.
With the result beyond doubt, the intensity dropped and Emery was able to rest a few of his key players for the final half an hour. The closest Everton came to scoring was from a corner in the second half when Maupay was found free at the back but Martinez made a smart stop to keep him out.
With just under 20 minutes to go, Emery brought on Jhon Duran for his taste of Premier League football this season. And the Columbian forward made an instant impact just fifty seconds after he came on as he pounced on an abysmal throw-in by Young and went through on goal and slotted past Pickford to make it 4-0.
The only sour note for Aston Villa as the clock ticked down was for an injury to substitute Phillipe Coutinho and they will be hoping that was not as serious as it looked. But their fans will have left Villa Park happy after seeing such a dominant win for their team.
Player of the Match - Leon Bailey
There were so many possible options for Player of the Match on the Aston Villa team in this game but after picking up a goal and an assist for his side as well as having a key part to play in Villa being awarded a penalty for their second goal, Bailey was one of the key driving forces in this dominant win.
After a stuttering start to life in the Premier League in the last year or so, Bailey looks like he has found his feet and will be a big part of the team going forward this season.
