Moyes: Villa win one of the best

Everton manager David Moyes hailed his side’s 3-1 win at Aston Villa as one of the best he has seen in his time at the club.

After their 1-0 victory over Manchester United last week, Everton stunned their opponents with a goal from Steven Pienaar after just three minutes, before Marouane Fellaini added a second on the half-hour mark.

Nikica Jelavic struck a third just before the break before Ciaran Clark was sent off for Villa on the hour mark, and although the home side pulled one back through Karim El Ahmadi, it was a comfortable win for the visitors.

“The performance was excellent. It was up there with a lot of the really good performances I’ve had at Everton,” Moyes told Sky Sports.

“I’ve got to give great credit to the players. They went out and showed today the confidence they’ve taken from the result last week.”

Moyes also praised the influence of Pienaar, who returned to the club permanently after a loan spell last season while at Tottenham.

“It was massive with the way he (Pienaar) played for us at the end of last season,” Moyes said.

“He was key to a lot of things we did. The players enjoyed playing with him. His general play today was excellent – throughout the game he was fantastic.”

Moyes’ Aston Villa counterpart Paul Lambert, meanwhile, was disappointed to be beaten so convincingly in his first home match in charge of the club.

“The disappointing thing is you could sense the crowd were wanting us to do well here today. We started okay and then the first two goals put us right on the back foot,” Lambert said.

“You can sense it from the stands they want us to do really well but it’s up to us to try and rectify that and that is my responsibility.”