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Swansea City manager Brendan Rodgers praised his "wonderful" players after their first Premier League away win.

Goals from man-of-the-match Nathan Dyer and Wayne Routledge earned a and lifted Swansea into 11th place.

"It was a wonderful performance and everything that is good in our game was typified today," Rodgers said.

"It was a great victory for us... we've had some really difficult games away from home against all the big clubs."

Dyer gave Villa full-back Stephen Warnock a torrid afternoon in a fine all-round display, while Routledge broke a Premier League scoring drought that had stretched to more than 100 games.

"Away from home I was never concerned... because of the level of performance, it was only going to be a matter of time," Rodgers added.

"I said to the players that it's a new year, now let's make a new commitment and a new resolve away from home and could we get that victory in the first game?

"So it's a fantastic start to the year for us... to come to a wonderful club like Aston Villa and get a result."

Rodgers' Villa counterpart Alex McLeish said that the result was a big comedown after his side had performed so well to on Saturday.

"It was hugely disappointing because in many ways this was a tougher game for them [the Villa players] than the Chelsea game because the expectation levels went to new heights," McLeish said.

"People were expecting us to wipe the floor with Swansea but I knew it could be quite a dangerous game, the way they pass the ball.

"When you shoot yourself in the foot and give away goals the way we did, it makes it so much harder."