Aston Villa 4-0 Everton

Aston Villa saw off Everton 4-0 at Villa Park to record their first Premier League win of the season in style.

Villa were excellent from start to finish as they put in an assured display packed with quality, claiming the spoils courtesy of four different goalscorers.

Captain John McGinn opened the scoring from close range in the 18^th minute before Douglas Luiz added a second shortly afterwards from the penalty spot.

Leon Bailey pounced to fire home a third in the 51^st minute and substitute Jhon Durán capped off a superb afternoon when he netted his maiden goal in claret and blue just a minute after being introduced.

It was the perfect way to mark the club’s first home match of the campaign in front of the Villa faithful, setting a club record of eight consecutive Premier League wins at Villa Park.

It was a fifth successive win over the Toffees, although there will be concern over a late injury to Philippe Coutinho.

Villa now travel north of the border to take on Hibernian in the first leg of their UEFA Europa Conference League play-off on Wednesday.

Pau Torres was awarded his competitive full debut in what was the sole change to Unai Emery’s starting XI from last weekend’s opening-day defeat at Newcastle United.

The Villa head coach otherwise kept an unchanged line-up, with fit-again duo Durán and Bertrand Traoré named among the substitutes.

Ahead of kick-off, Villa’s players wore t-shirts displaying ‘We are with You Ty’ in tribute to Tyrone Mings following his long-term knee injury sustained at St. James’ Park.

And it was Villa who took the lead with the game’s first shot on target, McGinn using clever movement to escape his marker and sweep home Bailey’s cross with a well-executed volley from four yards.

It was 2-0 just six minutes later as Ollie Watkins was upended in the penalty area by Jordan Pickford, with the ball subsequently heading for goal before being cleared off the line by Nathan Patterson.

Luiz duly stepped up to convert the resulting spot-kick and put the hosts firmly in command.

Moussa Diaby, also making his home bow, could have added a third moments later but saw his low strike saved by Pickford, before the Everton goalkeeper was at it again to tip his sweet volley on to the inside of a post and away to safety.

A combination of Torres’ glancing header and Watkins’ outstretched leg almost produced a third, while the visitors threatened for the first time before the break as Emi Martínez saved well from substitute Arnaut Danjuma.

It took just six second-half minutes for Villa to add a third goal of the afternoon as Michael Keane mis-cued Lucas Digne’s throw into the box and Bailey pounced to fire through the legs of Pickford.

Watkins sent a chance narrowly wide before Martínez produced a super stop to thwart Neal Maupay at the other end.

Emery introduced Coutinho, Youri Tielemans and Diego Carlos just after the hour mark, and then turned to Durán shortly afterwards.

Villa were well and truly in control and Durán made an immediate impact, capitalising on a mix-up from Ashley Young’s throw-in to James Tarkowski before racing through to slot past Pickford.

Coutinho hobbled off in obvious pain, replaced by Cameron Archer, as Villa comfortably saw out the closing stages to secure a clean sheet and all three points.