Steven Gerrard admits Bournemouth "defended extremely well" in victory over his Aston Villa side

Steven Gerrard admitted Bournemouth defended "extremely well" in their victory over his Aston Villa side at the weekend.

The Cherries triumphed 2-0 at Vitality Stadium to begin the new Premier League season in dream fashion, with Jefferson Lerma and Kieffer Moore on target. The visitors were frustrated throughout the clash, and struggled to create clear-cut chances.

Gerrard, who will be expected to steer his team to at least a mid-table finish this campaign, cast a downbeat assessment on their performance, and said conceding the opening goal after just two minutes left them with a mountain to climb.

"It's extremely disappointing, certainly not the result we came here for but I don't think we can have any complaints in terms of the outcome of the game for a couple of reasons," he said in his post-match press conference.

"I think a lot of focus will be on our set-plays, we've conceded two goals in that area today so I understand a lot of focus being in that area but we've also had of possession, a lot of control.

"We got into a lot of decent areas and we've had a lack of quality, so the focus should be on that as well.

"We've conceded really early on, we've worked on set-plays all week.

"We spoke about the profile in the opposition team and we said it's very important we don't give silly set plays away.

"We concede a set-play very early on and then it allows them to sit in, it allows them to be a low block, it allows them to frustrate.

"I thought Bournemouth defended extremely well but we allowed them to be in that low block by conceding such an early goal.

"We've had enough possession, enough control in the game. We've got to enough areas, we've had enough quality players on the pitch but our last pass, our last cross,