Sorry, I just thought it was 1980 for a minute. Watching the Villa on Sunday afternoon it was hard to tell the difference, if you ignored the lack of terracing, the pre-match build-up and the ticket prices. The golden haze of nostalgia means that those halcyon days of 1980-81 are now remembered as a series of dominant performances built on the basis of skill, flair and superior fitness.

The reality was that, particularly before Christmas, Villa ground out a lot of wins when not playing particularly well. The same could have been said about Sunday’s three points, which meant we got more in one game against these particular opponents than we did in both all those years ago.

Villa’s record in this fixture is beyond a joke but this time it seemed different. Before the match there was a resolution around Villa Park that this was the time for revenge, and then some. As the teams kicked off media talk centered around how one of them had a horrendous injury list and little was said about the other having three Academy graduates on the bench. Then again, we’re used to such inconsistencies on days like this.

We’re also used to Villa managing to conjure defeat from the jaws of victory, referees hardly concealing their bias and players making fatal errors. So when John McGinn and Ollie Watkins failed with a double chance and Morgan Rogers was unable to flick a Donyell Malen into the net nearly early on, it seemed as though this might turn into yet another One of Those Days.

But Villa stuck at it even though they failed to create any more decent chances, until as half-time approached Morgan Rodgers managed to keep the ball in play, cut inside and unleash yet another Goal of the Month contender. But of course, this being the Villa and the other team being who they are, there had to be an exercise in shooting yourself in the foot and almost on the half-time whistle it came courtesy of Matty Cash. If it had been a Ron Saunders team, he would probably have thought it wise to stay on the pitch at half-time.

But scarcely had the interval recriminations died down than they were forgotten as Youri Tielemans and Ollie Watkins combined to allow Rogers his second of the game, and from a similar distance. Against anyone else the rest of the match would have been nerve-wracking but on this occasion the nerves went well beyond wracked, even though the only real chance was a header that was badly missed.