Aston Villa tasted sweet Premier League success for the first time in 1,294 days – and boy was it a big win.

Goals from record-signing Wesley and a late Anwar El Ghazi second humbled top-six hopefuls Everton who twice went close with Alex Iwobi and Theo Walcott, the latter spurning a golden opportunity with the goal at his mercy with the score still at 1-0.

Here, Our Man at Villa Ashley Preece picks out 5 things learned from a brilliant bank holiday weekend victory which relieves any kind of pressure to get points on the board…

It was the trio which worked oh so well over pre-season and it did the trick against Everton under the lights at Villa Park. Jota often wowed the crowd in the first half and linked up brilliantly with Frederic Guilbert. The jet-heeled Frenchman kept going around the outside of Jota with the Spaniard himself often ghosting into the middle to play with Wesley and Jack Grealish. Guilbert was much more of an out-ball than Ahmed Elmohamady and has now surely cemented his place after being made to wait. Wesley, meanwhile, looked more at home playing with his close friend Jota as opposed to Anwar El Ghazi who failed to impress at Spurs and Bournemouth last week.

The Premier League is a much better place with Aston Villa and Villa Park in it – make no mistake about that. The noise before kick off was once again electrifying and it shot up a notch when Wesley burst through and found the net a little over 20 minutes later, the Brazilian almost taking the roof off in B6 as he celebrated wildly in front of the North Stand. The atmosphere was once again top notch and what a sight a packed-out Villa Park is on a warm Friday night. It was buzzing, all right and a great way to kick off the last bank holiday of the year. It’s becoming a happy place regardless of results and the Villa fans are in tune with everything Smith and his players are doing.

How many has Mo Salah scored, one? That was the famous quote Smith came out with during his Bodymoor briefing this week as he called on critics to get off Wesley’s back. The Brazilian repaid the faith shown in him and fired in the opener, much to the delight of Smith who celebrated with a double fist-pump. Wesley was a menace throughout the first half against a defence who had registered 10 clean sheets in 14 Premier League games previously. The Brazilian has now grew in confidence and Smith has every faith in his 22-year-old to become a real Premier League goal-getter.

I’m sounding like a broken record here but Bjorn Engels and Tyrone Mings were once again rock-solid at the back. The pair have struck up a cracking relationship. Both possess a calmness on the ball while having real balls of steel as well. Mings shook off a tight groin in the warm up to come out firing – and even whacked Engels in the first half when clearing the ball. The pair look a modern-day Shaun Teale and Paul McGrath, even at this early stage.

Smith has created such a tight-knit dressing room and it was once again evident tonight. The players harried Everton at every opportunity, worked hard to help their teammates and ran their socks off to get over the line, much to the delight of the adoring Villa Park faithful. All the players celebrated with goal hero El Ghazi at the end in front of the Holte End and it was a real moment. To humble Everton the way they did was truly stunning – and it’s all Dean Smith’s doing in getting his players to sing off the same hymn sheet.