Aston Villa ran out 3-0 winners against Derby County at Pride Park on Saturday.
Derby County boss Frank Lampard admitted to the club’s official Youtube Channel that Aston Villa outworked his side like no other this season, as the visitors took all three points with a comprehensive 3-0 win at Pride Park.
“We got outworked in the second half today. It’s the first time I’ve seen that from us all season. If you get outworked or don’t run as much as the other team, you lose the game,” Lampard explained.
“They’ve got so many quality players in attacking areas, if you afford them time to deliver from wide to get balls into midfield then they are going to hurt you and they did it to us regularly.”
The teams headed into the interval level, after missed chances at either end. It was set up for an intriguing second period, with Derby generally performing better at home this season after the break.
But Aston Villa had other ideas, and finally broke the deadlock through John McGinn 15 minutes from time, with Tammy Abraham and Connor Hourihane then netting soon after.
The 3-0 victory didn’t flatter Aston Villa on that second half showing, and Derby boss Lampard was keen to stress that the biggest difference between the two sides after the break was hard work on and off the ball.
Dean Smith had already tasted defeat at Pride Park this season in charge at Brentford as the Rams dominated in a 3-1 victory, and the new Villa boss seemed to have learned that lesson, with Villa pressing much more. The Villans had 53% possession and took 21 shots compared to the Rams’ 11 (BBC).
Derby lost 4-1 at home to Leeds United in a somewhat bizarre game earlier on in the campaign with the score-line flattering the Whites, but that wasn’t the case on Saturday with Aston Villa running out worthy winners.
Victory moves Villa up to 11th in the Championship table, four points behind Derby in 6th.
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