Analysis: Aston Villa shift play-off charge up another gear with commanding win over Middlesbrough

Not, however, on Saturday, when the chance to move into the top six for the first time since September was not merely accepted but grasped hungrily with both hands.

Ignore the 3-0 scoreline, the game wasn’t even that close, as for the second time this term Villa ran riot over the division’s best defence.

Of the 31 goals Middlesbrough have now conceded, Villa have scored six of them, a tally which over the course of two emphatic wins might easily have been doubled.

Make no mistake, this victory was comfortably as dominant as the one at the Riverside Stadium in early December, perhaps even more so.

Boro, it must be said, were dreadful. Their lack of attacking intent, even when trailing 2-0 in the second half, as mystifying as it was shocking.

But that is not Villa’s concern. The style with which Dean Smith’s team cracked a backline others have found impenetrable was still worthy of huge praise. Victory saw them pull to within a point of the visitors, who remain fifth but are now, from a position of comfort, suddenly very much again part of a play-off race which sees a host of teams chasing not one but two spots.

Villa too find themselves among the hunted. True, both Derby and Bristol City have games in hand and yes, Smith’s is not the only team in excellent form.

Yet none of the other contenders carry quite the same attacking swagger as Villa, who once again ooze goals.

The current four-match winning run has seen them plunder 11, the same number they managed in the previous 10 matches before that.

Derby have one game in hand but do not play it until the final week of the season. One of the two matches for Bristol City to make up is against Boro, while the Robins must also visit Villa Park themselves next month.

For Villa, there is a chance to now build some serious scoreboard pressure, starting with the home game against Blackburn on the other side of the international break. Keep winning and it will quickly become hard for others to stay the pace.

Certainly at the moment it is difficult to identify what or who can halt their charge. In the space of seven days, Villa jumped from 14th in the table. Each opponent – Blues, Forest and then Boro – entered the contest ahead of them. Each was deservedly beaten.

It is impossible not to look at the return of Jack Grealish as the biggest reason for the transformation of a team which only a few weeks ago lacked any sense of direction.

On Saturday, however, Grealish was again upstaged by the brilliance of John McGinn, who after showing superb vision to set up Anwar El Ghazi’s 28th-minute opener, scored a brilliant goal of his own just before the break to put Villa in complete command. The Scot was probably, on balance, the home side’s man of the match, though once again the prize was hotly-contested and it may serve to examine two of the team’s less vaunted performers to get a true measure of the change in mood.

Neither Glenn Whelan or Neil Taylor could be classed as fan favourites, yet it could be argued both are currently in their best form since joining the club.

Whelan, restored to the starting XI due to the arrival of Conor Houriahne’s first child, submitted the kind of all-action display typically associated with McGinn, making countless tackles and interceptions to ensure the hosts dominated the midfield.

Taylor, meanwhile, is playing with an assuredness seen all too little over the past two years and contributing at both ends of the pitch. It was his pass down the flank which started the move for Villa’s second goal.

The Wales international was part of a defence which kept a clean sheet for the third time four games, with Kortney Hause and Tyrone Mings again impressive.

There will, in truth, be far tougher tests ahead in what promises to be a thrilling run-in.

Much hard work remains. Yet Villa, for now, are marching towards the finish line with serious momentum and in arguably their strongest shape of the season.