In the past seven days Villa have booked a date at Wembley in the FA Cup and won convincingly away against a team above them in the league. In another few days time we’re off to Paris for a Champions League quarter-final. Given the circumstances everyone expected a few changes in the team Unai Emery picked. Nobody predicted how many.

Eight new faces, including a defence that had never played together, might have indicated that Unai has decided to prioritise the cups but that idea was soon proved wrong. Thirteen minutes gone and yet another inch-perfect ball from Youri Tielemans landed for Morgan Rogers to put Villa ahead.

Two minutes later Tielemans yet again laid the ball for Ian Maatsen, who split the defence and knocked it square for Donyell Malen to score his second in two games.

Villa were totally dominant and could have got another couple, but seemed to slip towards the end of the first half and allow Forest back into the game.

At half-time a current England international replaced a promising youngster but Villa were now struggling to impose themselves against a Forest side who have got the unity and self-belief that comes from a season where everything’s gone for them. There was therefore no real surprise when they pulled a goal back after two of their players seemed to get in a tangle that threw the best keeper in the world.

There were times when Villa would have collapsed at this point but that was before we could bring on a current England striker for one who’s a bit out of form, a future England international for one of the goalscorers and the absolute fulcrum of the team for a £50 million record signing. That was before a club legend apparent replaced the man who is currently the most in-form striker in the league.

As you might expect, these changes managed to bring a bit more urgency into Villa’s play and although Forest hit the bar, there were a couple of chances when Rogers might have done better and Marcus Rashford certainly would have done had the ball bounced differently late on.

And so it was another three points and the Villa end of season juggernaut rumbles on at the end of the sort of week we’re getting used to. It wasn’t the best of performance and maybe we have left it too late to finish in the top five but on this form, with Tielemans looking as good a playmaker as anyone, with Kamara dominating and Rogers everywhere, and with Rashford and Marco Asensio capable of anything, I’ll say now what I’ve said before. On their day this Villa team can beat anyone in the world.