BUENDIA LIFTS PRESSURE OFF GERRARD WHILE MITROVIC HAS A SPOT OF BOTHER

GOALS by Danny Ings and Emiliano Buendia lifted the pressure off manager Steven Gerrard as Aston Villa held off a late Everton surge to seal a 2-1 at Villa Park.

The former Rangers boss received flak last weekend after Villa’s meek 2-0 loss at Bournemouth, which came off the back of Tyrone Mings being stripped of the captaincy in favour of John McGinn.

However, with Mings back in the side after injury, Villa opened the scoring just after the half-hour mark when Ings fired home, with substitute Buendia (pictured) securing all three points late on.

Lucas Digne’s 87th-minute own goal was too little too late for Frank Lampard’s side.

‘I think we deserved the external criticism,’ said Gerrard. ‘But we asked the players to deliver a response and I think we got that.’

Aleksandar Mitrovic missed a late penalty as Fulham were held to a goalless draw at Wolves.

Mitrovic, who was later involved in an angry bust-up with Morgan Gibbs-White, saw Jose Sa save his 81st-minute spot-kick.

Pascal Gross was just as wasteful as Brighton’s home clash with Newcastle also ended 0-0.

His miskick from Kaoru Mitoma’s 85th-minute cross let the Magpies off the hook.