Aston Villa have eased back into third place in the Premiership after beating Sunderland 2-0 at The Stadium of Light tonight.

It was a slightly scrappy affair at times, but Villa put in no more effort than they needed to and always looked like there was another gear or two available if required. It wasn’t, but they couldn’t hide the chinks of quality shining through.

Heskey opened the scoring in the 27th minute after Petrov worked some space for James Milner to slide rule a ball for Heskey to merely help on into the bottom corner. Villa had loaded the box with options and it was really refreshing to see another goal worked through the middle. We can go down the wings, we can go through the middle. Good luck defending against that.

Villa backed off for the rest of the half, but Sunderland didn’t offer much of a threat. Brad Friedel was forced into serious action shortly before the break after Sunderland managed to thread themselves into the box and cut the ball back towards the penalty spot.

The second half kicked off in slightly cagey fashion with Sunderland looking to get back on terms, but were nervous about leaving themselves exposed to Villa’s devastating counter attacking power. Villa were able to pretty much confirm the three points when James Milner’s industry robbed Sunderland of possession from their own throw in around the hour mark. His determined run inside with the ball presented an opportunity to shoot from 30 yards and he unleashed, leaving goal keeper Marton Fulop no chance as the ball nestled in the top corner.

Villa couldn’t afford to be complacent during the last third of the game, Sunderland were capable of scoring, but they never looked likely of being able to score twice. Again, as cliched as it is, Villa always looked like they had a little something extra in the locker.

In the end, it was a pretty comfortable win, another three points, continuing the unbeaten run. We’re back in third place, at least temporarily, and can now look forward to Stoke visiting Villa Park on Saturday. I mean really look forward – we owe them some revenge from the same fixture last season, if you recall.

It may have been scrappy in places, but every now and then there were signs of some real short range passing and movement. The understanding between our attacking players has grown immeasurably since the season opened and they’re starting to look like a unit with many, many attacking options.

Some teams struggle to find one decent left winger – we have three and at one point in the first half I spotted all of them working the left channel together. When you combine that type of attacking prowess with the equal ability to go straight through the middle, consider the strength at the back (that’s three straight clean sheets now) and it’s clear that we are a team to be seriously feared for the rest of this season.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait for Saturday!!