The battle duel between the two former England midfielders ended in the Premier League football with a win over Aston Villa football team opened the house and slaughtered "Blue Toffees" Everton 2-1in a heart-wrenching controversy until the second half of 7minutes at Villa Park.
First blood went to Steven Gerrard in his managerial rivalry with old England team-mate Frank Lampard but he had the recalled Tyrone Mings to thank for securing Aston Villa's first win of the season. With time slipping away and Villa 2-1 up, Everton substitute Salomon Rondon looked certain to equalise, only for Mings – stripped of the captaincy and then dropped by Gerrard last week – to lunge in and stop him.
10th min: A nice turn and attempted throughball from Dwight McNeil is just thwarted by Mings. Ramsey makes another promising run down the other end, but Digne's cross deflects to Jordan Pickford, who gathers, looks for the counter-attack... and kicks the ball straight out of play.
13th min: Villa appeal for a penalty after Matty Cash went down under pressure, but there's nothing doing there. Contact was outside the box, anyway.
24th min: And just like that, Everton have the ball in the net... but the offside flag is up! Villa have looked shaky from corners and they didn't deal with this one, with Gordon turning the ball in from close range. VAR confirms he was offside, though, so we're at 0-0 as we go for the first drinks break.
31st min: GOAL! ASTON VILLA TAKE THE LEAD! It's an absolutely thumping finish from Danny Ings. McNeil loses the ball and Villa release Watkins down the right. Ings and Philippe Coutinho seemed to get in each other's way from the cut-back, but the striker turns and rifles a shot past the helpless Pickford with his weaker left foot, end of the first half of this Premier League football match.
85th min: GOAL! 2-0 TO VILLA! Once again, it comes from Everton losing the ball up the pitch. This time, it's Onana who is dispossessed in the centre circle, and Buendia takes over: he slides in Watkins and races onto the return pass across the box to slot home, with Pickford out of position. Villa are heading for three points.
87th min: GOAL! 2-1!! Somehow, Everton are back in this! Onana makes amends, powering his way to the byline before squeezing the ball across goal. It eludes Mings and Martinez and ends up going in off former Everton man Lucas Digne. Game on!
The atmosphere at the end of the game was intense as Everton stared at the equalizer on several occasions but failed. After the completion of game, Aston Villa won 2-1, starting their first three points in the Premier League football.
