Aston Villa 3 Blackburn Rovers 0
Veteran striker Dion Dublin's hot scoring streak continued as Aston Villa gained revenge for their FA Cup mauling by Blackburn with a comfortable Premiership victory at Villa Park.
England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson came to assess the form of Gareth Barry and Darius Vassell before naming his squad next weekend for the friendly international against Australia on February 12th.
But it was Dublin, whose Villa career had looked over when he was loaned out to Millwall last season, who was the main reason for his side continuing their league revival with 13 points from the last 18.
The 33-year-old has now been on target eight times in the last 10 games to take his tally for the campaign to 14.
He found the net after just two minutes. David Thompson conceded a free-kick on the left flank after fouling Gareth Barry and the resulting cross from Gudjonsson was met by Dublin who climbed above Martin Taylor to send his header into the corner of the net.
Dublin doubled their lead with another clinical finish five minutes before half-time. Ronny Johnsen and Barry were involved in the build-up before the latter played the ball into the path of Dublin, who made no mistake with a left-footed effort into the corner of the net from 12 yards out.
But Barry, although not at his very best, also did his chances no harm when he put the icing on a convincing Villa performance with the third goal nine minutes from time - and his second in two games.
Graham Taylor's side had been trounced 4-1 in The FA Cup meeting on the same ground three weeks ago, but they dominated this encounter and leap-frogged over Rovers in the table.
Dublin was a constant threat while Johannes Gudjonsson and Thomas Hitzlsperger ensured Villa had control of the midfield.
And at the back there were solid performances from Olof Mellberg and Ronny Johnsen as Blackburn's strike force of Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke barely posed a threat.