Wolverhampton 0; Aston Villa 4: When Aston Villa began this season in relegation form, it was tempting to dismiss David O'Leary as a "one-hit wonder" and to deem his successes with Leeds United as flukes.
Six months on, it is increasingly difficult to wipe the smile from the face of Villa's manager who, while in West Yorkshire, was in the habit of lighting candles at mass for journalists with the temerity to doubt him.
Arguably the Premiership's most improved team, Villa have joined the chase for the fourth Champions League place and yesterday subjected Wolves to a ruthless, satisfyingly high-tempo, dissection. "We've bonded and are playing some good football," said O'Leary afterwards. "We controlled and dominated."
If Europe looms on Villa's horizon, the Molineux vista seems distinctly Nationwide, and it was impossible to sympathise with those 12 Wolves players whose contracts conclude in June and are upset at the club's refusal to offer them lucrative new deals.
"It took us 30 minutes to get a tackle in," admitted Dave Jones. "Villa are a very, very good team but we were our own worst enemy. No one did his job to the best of his ability."
Jody Craddock certainly will not be happy about the way, in the sixth minute, he allowed himself to be dodged by Thomas Hitzlsperger on the left of the penalty area before the midfielder directed a rising, angled, left-foot shot across Paul Jones and into the topcorner of the net.
Hitzlsperger's left foot was instrumental in Villa's second goal, his corner --Villa's 10th in 17 minutes - being met by Olof Mellberg who headed home at the near post.
Next Lee Naylor was caught loitering in possession inside his own area. Juan Pablo Angel could hardly fail to notice the left-back's hesitancy, advanced to seize the ball and dinked it over Jones.
Then, Lee Hendrie, having dodged Paul Butler, who looked horribly slow at centre-half, hit the bar with an impressive curling effort. Wolves finally had a near miss themselves when Mellberg's foul on Vio Ganea earned a penalty but Thomas Sorensen easily saved the Romanian striker's miscued effort.
Judging by the caustic half- time comments of disillusioned season-ticket holders even an afternoon at the supermarket might have been preferable to this humilitation.
Craddock and Butler, hardly aided by an ignominously off-the-pace Denis Irwin, would perhaps gladly have joined the shopping trip rather than try to cope with Angel's dizzying pace and movement.
Angel claimed Villa's fourth goal which arrived courtesy of a wonderfully precise long pass from Nolberto Solano who, despite some uncharacteristically disappointing dead-ball execution, offered a valuable right-wing outlet and, earlier, memorably dispossessed a startled Paul Ince. On this occasion the Peruvian perfectly timed the ball's delivery to leave his fellow Latin American onside.
Once in possession, Angel displayed exemplary technique to evade Jones with a low shot. It was his 20th goal of the season, thereby becoming the first Villa player to reach that total since Dwight Yorke back in 1996-97.
