DON'T try asking Villa's players to find reasons for their most emphatic defeat of the season.

The chances are, they don't have a clue how it happened. Come to think of it, more than 26,000 spectators left Maine Road equally bemused, even if the vast majority of them were too ecstatic to contemplate even a post-match analysis.

City's supporters had more important matters to occupy their thoughts, like the fact that survival is still possible despite their team's nosedive down the Premiership table.

For Villa, it seems, winning the Coca-Cola League Cup and attaining a place in next season's UEFA Cup represents the completion of their season's work.

Ron Atkinson's men will, no doubt, entertain us during their remaining fixtures, but the need to finish third in the table was removed by last week's glorious Wembley display.

Big Ron's relaxed after-match demeanour said it all. He wasn't exactly jumping for joy about a three-goal drubbing, but you got the impression he wasn't about to lose any sleep, either.

That's not to suggest Villa will be throwing in the towel at the first sign of danger during these last few weeks of the campaign, but Saturday was a classic case of the team needing the points showing greater urgency.

In view of the scoreline, it may seem silly to suggest that in terms of sheer quality, Villa were streets ahead, but they were.

For most of the first half, they sliced through City's defence almost at will, with Andy Townsend, Kevin Richardson and Garry Parker providing a succession of precision passes and Tony Daley's pace threatening to spark an avalanche of goals.

What Villa failed to do, though, was to get in where it hurt, with most of their blows thrown from long range and carrying insufficient menace to threaten a breakthrough.

Like a heavyweight in the corner, City were content to weather the storm and wait for the chance of a counter attack.

In the event, Horton's battlers delivered a sharp one-two from Peter Beagrie and Paul Walsh in the space of six minutes before half-time, and followed up with Uwe Rosier'a knockout blow eight minutes after the re-start.

No wonder Villa looked punch-drunk for the remainder of the match as they searched in vain for some sort of consolation to show for their impressive approach work.

As Atkinson pointed out, Villa's performance in the opening half hour or so was as good as anything they have produced in the league for some considerable time.

There are days, though, when it just isn't going to happen, and this was one of them.

Teenage striker Graham Fenton tested goalkeeper Andy Dibble with a fierce low drive towards the end, but otherwise Villa's raids went nowhere.

Where they had earlier been assured, there was a touch of self-doubt which inhibited their creative output and made everything they did rather predictable.

It might have been worse, too, for City's three-goal cushion gave them the confidence to be more adventurous. Mark Bosnich had to turn away a goal-bound Beagrie shot and Parker cleared off the line from Michel Vonk's close range header.

Had those efforts gone in, it would have been really embarrassing, for Villa, while disappointing in the second half, were most certainly never outclassed.

They simply paid the price for 14 catastrophic minutes either side of the interval, when even the otherwise solid Shaun Teale and Ugo Ehiogu went AWOL.