OK it wasn't the rout of last season's 6-1 thriller, but the result was exactly what was needed to see Saints through to the last 8 of the Capital One Cup.
The result might not have looked comfortable but the reality was this was a under strength Saints team who looked completely relaxed against a Villa side who looked short on quality and confidence.
In the first half Villa had a lot of the ball and pressed and probed, but rarely did they truly threaten, Saints looked like they were in control and you always felt that once Vila conceded then the tie was safe.
Ronald Koeman rang the changes especially at the back where Virgil Van Dijk was the only survivor from Sunday at Liverpool and in the midfield where Romeu, Ramirez and Juanmi would not usually start, indeed it could be said that of the starting XI only 4, Stekelenburg, Van Dijk, Wanyama, Pelle & to a lesser degree James Ward Prowse could be considered automatic choices.
But that meant that Saints had a good spine to the side although they were a trifle unbalanced in some areas.
Yoshida opened the scoring shortly after the break and once we had that goal Villa looked beaten, a double change with 20 minutes left saw Steven Davis & Tadic come on and Saints looked far better balanced for it with Davis moving the ball quickly and Tadic creating, the second goal was a peach, Davis hit a great cross field pass to Tadic who controlled and crossed for Pelle to slam home and the game was all but over.
The only down spot was the late penalty conceded tha from where I was sat looked very soft and harsh.
So how did the players who came in do ?
Yoshida although he got a goal is not a genuine right back and looked shaky at times and still prone to is lapses in concentration.
Caulker took a while to get going but is an experienced defender at this level and could be a perfect foil for Van Dijk in that he offers true strength, certainly he will push Fonte for a place.
Matt Targett had a decent game and did a lot more right than he did wrong, we should have no worries about playing him in future.
Juanmi showed glimpses of what he can do and is certainly an asett off the bench.
Romeu had a great game and will be useful, the cynic in me says that if Wanyama should leave then we already have his replacement.
Gaston Ramirez seemed to try to hard, he clearly put the effort in and wanted to show the manager what he can do, but the truth is little really came off for him.
All in all though, given injury, suspension and the changes a good result and another step forward, although we would have preferred a Championship club in the draw, we are at home and have a great chance of a place in the semi final.