Sorry but ease of understanding has nothing to do with it. It is impossible to outperform something that isn't stated, thats a lack of understanding, its not technical its an unfinished statement
Aston Villa outperformed, makes absolutely no sense, What did they outperform? You need the qualifying benchmark for it to make any sense Aston VIlla outperformed their previous three seasons.
If the word was overperform, it would be exactly the same