Aston Villa 4-0 Southampton

Aston Villa put in a scintillating display as they swept aside Southampton 4-0 at Villa Park.

Ollie Watkins’ neat turn and finish fired Villa into an early ninth-minute lead before Douglas Luiz doubled the advantage with a close-range finish on the stroke of half-time.

The hosts then made sure of all three points with two goals in three minutes early in the second half - Philippe Coutinho capping an impressive display with a smart finish from a tight angle before Danny Ings, who also registered two assists against his former club, swept home a fourth.

With the Villans purring in attack and Saints goalkeeper Fraser Forster coming to the visitors’ rescue on numerous occasions, Steven Gerrard’s side also kept a valuable clean sheet, Emi Martínez making a superb one-handed save to thwart Che Adams and cap the perfect afternoon for the home side.

It was a second successive victory and clean sheet for Villa, who recorded their first home win since early December and first over in-form Southampton in B6 since 2004.

Ashley Young and Calum Chambers, who started his career at Saints, were named in Villa’s starting line-up, replacing defenders Lucas Digne and Ezri Konsa respectively, with the pair absent from the matchday 20.

They were the only changes from Gerrard’s XI who started last weekend’s 2-0 win at Brighton & Hove Albion, with fit-again Bertrand Traoré named among the substitutes.

Ahead of kick-off, Villa Park, along with all Premier League stadiums, united in applause as football stood together for a moment of solidarity with Ukraine.

Villa got off to a dream start as they opened the scoring after just nine minutes, Ings finding Watkins, who turned smartly inside the penalty area to create space and curl beyond Forster. 

Stuart Armstrong went close to a leveller for the visitors as his strike flew narrowly wide, before Jacob Ramsey flicked a header off target from a corner with Ings perfectly placed behind.

Watkins enjoyed a perfect chance to double his and Villa’s tally just after the half-hour mark but saw his effort blocked by the feet of Forster having been played through by Coutinho, Adams then heading on to the roof of the net moments later as openings came at either end.

Romain Perraud flashed an effort wide just before the break while the lively Coutinho drilled inches off target and was then denied by the feet of Forster as Villa threatened a second.

And they got it just before half-time as Coutinho found Chambers and he sent a sumptuous pass with the outside of his foot back into the path of the Brazil international, who cushioned a ball across goal for Luiz to slot home.

Coutinho then came close to getting his name on the scoresheet in injury time as he raced on to Watkins’ flicked header but saw his composed finish roll agonisingly wide.

Yet he got the goal his display deserved early in the second half as he received the ball from Ings, who claimed his second assist of the afternoon, feinted to shoot and created space before seeing his strike deflect through the legs of Forster.

Impressive Ings was denied by Forster as the Villans started the second period in rampant fashion.

But the striker was finally rewarded in the 54^th minute as Gerrard’s side registered two quickfire goals, coolly converting Matty Cash’s cut-back.

Martínez preserved Villa’s clean sheet moments later as he made an excellent one-handed save to deny Adams, before Young nodded Jack Stephens’ far-post header away from danger from underneath the crossbar.

Saints continued to search for a consolation goal while Villa looked to add to their tally in attack, but they saw out the encounter 4-0 to move on to 33 points heading into next week’s double-header against Leeds United and West Ham United.