Aston Villa recorded their 18th Premier League defeat of the season on Tuesday night after Everton ran out 3-1 winners at Villa Park.
Ramiro Funes Mori, Aaron Lennon and Romelu Lukaku managed to get on the scoresheet, and despite conceding to Rudy Gestede in the 79th minute, it was a relatively comfortable night for Roberto Martinez and his team.
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It took five minutes for Everton to take the lead as Funes Mori was unmarked and had plenty of space to convert a free header in the box from six yards out.
The goal came from a corner kick, which was taken by Kevin Mirallas, and it was gifted to the visitors as Villa failed to defend with conviction.
It was a slow start from Remi Garde's side, but they found some rhythm and asked questions of goalkeeper Joel Robles when Kieran Westwood unleashed a shot on target from the edge of the box.
Almost instantly, Villa earned two consecutive corners and caused trouble with them as Robles was nowhere near the ball as it bounced past him in the first attempt and the second ended with Micah Richards performing a spectacular overhead kick, which came to nothing.
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Everton got sloppy and allowed Villa time on the ball, but they weathered a 10-minute storm from the home side before dealing a sucker-punch on the counter-attack.
It began with Ross Barkley, who charged down the pitch before feeding the ball forward to Mirallas. The Belgian then sent a low cross into the feet of Lennon, which allowed the winger to slot home from the centre of the box.
Villa keeper Brad Guzan was almost embarrassed a few minutes later when he spilled Mirallas's shot, which resulted in the ball dropping back to the attacker, whose second attempt missed the target.
Despite having a 2-0 deficit, Villa ended the first half on the front foot and Joleon Lescott came close to equalising when Leandro Bacuna's cross into the area was headed back to the unmarked defender at the near post.
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Lescott's chipped effort grazed over the crossbar and he spent the early stages of the second half back defending as Everton jumped out of the blocks with pace and intent.
As the half progressed, Guzan managed to make a decent save when Lukaku met Lennon's cross in the box with a header from close range, but Villa's keeper dropped to his right to make the stop.
In the 60th minute, though, Lukaku made club history by scoring the most Everton goals (17) in a Premier League season by tapping the ball into the back of the net after latching on to a cross from Funes Mori, who was in acres of space.
At the other end, Gareth Barry was caught napping when he failed to track Westwood's run in the box and the Villa man unleashed a shot, which bounced into the ground before getting knocked behind for a corner by Phil Jagielka.
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In the 74th minute, a significant number of fans made their way out of the stadium as part of a planned walkout, and they did not miss out on a comeback, but they did miss a goal from Gestede.
Just minutes after coming onto the pitch from the substitutes' bench, the forward latched on to a high cross in the box and managed to leap higher than Jagielka before heading the ball past the keeper.
It proved to only be a consolation goal, though, as some late pressure was not enough to force a comeback for the home side.
Everton move above Merseyside rivals Liverpool to 10th in the table, while Villa remain rooted to the bottom of the standings, eight points from safety.
Danielle Joynson
