Aston Villa 1 Everton 3: This season Everton are in a class of their own. That is to say that while they may not be upper sixth neither are they lower fourth. In Premiership terms they are the remove, though without a Billy Bunter.

The quality of the performance which on Saturday brought their first victory at Villa Park since the spring of 1987 suggested that next season will find David Moyes' team experiencing the higher education of the Champions League, or at least its qualifying stage.

"I've sensed that it has been coming," said Moyes. "We've seen bits of it in recent games and there was a real desire to make sure we got the points today. You could see in their eyes what they wanted to do."

The pattern of the match and its eventual outcome stemmed from the early mastery Everton assumed in midfield and never relinquished. Having found, in Tim Cahill, who cost £2 million from Millwall, something of the inspiration previously provided by Wayne Rooney, Moyes has responded to the loss of Thomas Gravesen to Real Madrid by signing on loan Mikel Arteta from Real Sociedad.

Here Arteta's ability to hold the ball under pressure and create space with well-judged forward runs promised to be an adequate alternative to Gravesen's powerful attacking forays.

In fact for all the resistance provided by Thomas Hitzlsperger and Eric Djemba-Djemba it was hardly worth their getting changed. After five minutes Hitzlsperger split the Everton defence with a through ball to send Gareth Barry clear before Joseph Yobo made a good recovering tackle and there Aston Villa's challenge in midfield all but ended.

Yobo's excellence at the back for Everton was mirrored up front by the strength and vision of Marcus Bent, with James Beattie suspended their only out-and-out striker, who consistently held the ball up and linked the play.

"He needs more goals," said Moyes although before Saturday's game Bent was their leading scorer.

Now Cahill and Leon Osman have joined him with seven apiece. Had Everton accepted half their opportunities they would have doubled their winning margin.

The goals they did score were a mixture of slick execution and poor defending. The first, after 17 minutes, was headed in by Osman at the far post after Bent had distracted the defence.

Villa drew level at the start of the second half, Nolberto Solano scoring after Nigel Martyn had blocked Hitzlsperger's shot, but Everton regained the lead almost immediately when Bent's centre found Cahill accepting a free header with aplomb.

Just past the hour Hitzlsperger meekly surrendered possession to Bent before Cahill sidestepped two opponents to set up Osman for another simple goal.

Villa manager David O'Leary described his team as "a quiet, nice bunch of lads - probably too nice." Certainly they were nice to Everton.