Aston Villa boss Steven Gerrard praised Tyrone Mings after victory over Southampton.

Gerrard elected to take the armband away from Mings, with John McGinn being appointed skipper instead.

Mings was on the bench against Bournemouth in the opening game of the season but has stepped up since then and was impressive in Villa's 1-0 victory against Southampton on Friday night.

Gerrard told Sky Sports: "I'm extremely pleased. He's showed a lot of character and a lot of guts. I put that noise on Tyrone so that was my situation. The reason I did that is because when I came into this job I inherited the boys I did there was a lot of noise around him and I felt that affected his performances and consistency.

"The idea was to take that away from him so he could focus on him more and not worry about other players in the team or other roles, just solely focus on you and bring your attributes to the table consistently. He has got them, I still think he can do better but Tyrone needs to focus on Tyrone."