Boro frailties exposed by Villa

Martin O´Neill´s Aston Villa underlined the reason why their manager elected to snub England this week with a strong and purposeful performance to breeze past woeful Middlesbrough 3-0.

John Carew grabbed Villa´s opener in first-half injury time and Olof Mellberg and Gabriel Agbonlahor completed the rout as Villa increased their Barclays Premier League momentum.

By contrast Middlesbrough were dreadful and apart from two chances for Stewart Downing they offered next to nothing and now look set for a long winter battling against the drop.

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