"It was always going to be a good pace of game, Villa set their stall out straight away and we responded very well to that. Our football was excellent and we really produced, I'm sure, our best performance since we played Everton away.'
"We got the tempo of the game right, the rhythm was terric, we passed and moved and it was a top performance. Obviously, Villa raised the stakes in the second half and made it more difficult but there was always going to be a change as Villa have had a fantastic season at home and were going to do something about it."