Adam Webster rates Ollie Watkins as perhaps the best striker of his kind in the Premier League.

He has certainly enjoyed himself against Albion before.

So the returning centre-back was delighted to play his part in a gameplan designed to stop Watkins and Aston Villa posing a threat – and halting the slide.

One-nil to the Albion? Not the scoreline one would normally associate with Roberto De Zerbi’s side given their reputation for daring attack.

But their last three wins have all been via that result and that is one remedy for a lack of goals scored – don’t concede any.

Webster told The Argus: “We know how good Villa are. They are probably going to get Champions League football.

“It has been a tough couple of months for us as a club.

“It’s nice to get a clean sheet, to limit them to hardly any chances.

“They have got some amazing players so it was really pleasing and hopefully we can take this into the last three games.

“We had a clear gameplan and it really worked.

“We changed a couple of things and you could see it really helped us at the back and we were dangerous as well.

“Although it was only 1-0 we had some good opportunities, the keeper made some good saves but we kept believing and we finally got the goal.

“We tend to play very man-to-man normally and, against teams like Villa, you can get caught out quite easily because they have got such good quality, especially at the higher end of the pitch.

“So we had the extra man with Billy (Gilmour) sitting in front of us and we just let them come on to us.

“Sometimes we took our medicine and said, ‘Come and break us down’ and then we played from there and we looked dangerous so it really worked.

“We still tried to do our principles in possession and we caused them problems.

“It was pleasing from that point of view.”

Clearly the work of Watkins would have featured large in the planning.

Webster said: “His movement is probably the best in the Premier League – or right up there.

“He has got a bit of everything as a striker and is probably one of the toughest you can face.

“For them to have an xG of 0.06 is really pleasing for us.”

De Zerbi has come up with successful plans before and this one worked well.

Webster said: “We know as players how adaptable he is and the way he sets us up in possession.

“We have got an option for everything out there and as players we know that.

“It is just about us trying to execute that.

“We know how good opposition players are. We know their strength.

“We do a lot of work on it in the build-up to the game.”

There was one more element about the build-up from the boss.

De Zerbi made sure as he spoke to his players on Sunday morning that everyone recalled the 6-1 reverse suffered at Villa Park at the end of September.

Webster said: “I remember that game very well and I knew that we had to get a bit of revenge today.

“It was a really tough game for us.

“We lost 6-1 and it was never a 6-1 game, never.

“But when you get beat 6-1, it looks terrible, looks a lot worse.

“I really wanted to get some revenge for that and get the three points.”

And then there is the issue of stung pride, most recently from the 3-0 defeat by Bournemouth.

Webster said: “No one wants to lose games. You want a reaction from that.

“We went there, Bournemouth played well, we weren’t at the levels we know we can get to.

“We wanted to put that right in front of our home fans.

“We really want to try and finish strong.

“We have got some tough games but we have got nothing to lose and we will be trying to finish as high as we can.”