By Aston Villa FC

Dean Smith hailed an “outstanding” victory and saluted a superb team performance as Aston Villa recorded a 3-0 victory over Crystal Palace in his 100th match in charge of the club.

Bertrand Traore’s second goal in as many games put Villa in command early on before Tyrone Mings was dismissed on the stroke of half-time.

But, despite being a man down for the second period, Kortney Hause’s header and a stunning finish from in-form Anwar El Ghazi wrapped up three excellent points for Smith’s side.

It was an eighth Premier League clean sheet of the season as Villa extended their unbeaten sequence to four matches with a first home triumph since the memorable 7-2 win over Liverpool in early October.

And Smith cut a delighted figure speaking to VillaTV post-match.

“It’s an outstanding three points,” he said.

“We were indebted in the first minute to Emi, he’s made a really good save, but then we’ve gone up the other end and (scored) a really good counter-attacking goal.

“We looked a threat on the break all the time.

“It became a little bit cagey in stages and then I think the game changes, really, with the two yellows.”

Smith continued: “But I’m really pleased with the players, it was a tough call not to bring Ezri straight in, he’s been excellent.

“I said to the players at half-time, we’ve got to find a good balance here between defending and attacking, we don’t want to be sat deep on the edge of our box.

“I thought we did it really well and found the balance excellently.

“There’s a growing maturity among this group of lads at the moment and some of our attacking threat in the second half was excellent.”

You can watch Dean's full interview below…