Matt Maher: Derby dust-up plays out pretty much as expected

Gary O’Neil’s side, of course, are not the only ones hit hard by injuries. Villa’s list of absentees is just as long and has in all likelihood cost Unai Emery’s men a genuine shot at the Premier League title.

Even Saturday’s win, which strengthened their hold on a top-five finish which will probably be enough to deliver Champions League football, came with a caveat after top scorer Ollie Watkins was forced off at half-time with a hamstring problem.

Yet Emery has not had to deal with a crisis quite so acute as the one facing O’Neil who, already operating with a smaller squad than the Spaniard, has found himself without Hwang Hee-chan, Pedro Neto, Matheus Cunha and Jean-Ricner Bellegarde just as the season hits its most critical period.

When Cunha’s name was absent from the team sheet entirely, with 18-year-old Leon Chiwome – whose name didn’t even make the matchday programme – handed a Premier League debut, you wondered just how Wolves would be able to seriously threaten Villa?

Barring one big, missed chance for Rayan Ait-Nouri, that is pretty much how it proved. For all their decent approach play, the visitors never had the necessary bite where it mattered most.

The moment which summed it all up and effectively ended the contest came just past the hour mark. With Villa still only leading through Moussa Diaby’s first-half strike and not completely comfortable, Emery introduced Nicolo Zaniolo off the bench and within two minutes the Italy international played a key role in the move which ended with Ezri Konsa adding the home team’s second goal. O’Neil scratched his head, turned to the bench and five minutes later brought on Tawanda Chirewa for the 20-year-old midfielder’s third top flight appearance.

With Ait-Nouri having already been withdrawn from the action, when the score was 1-0, there was a definite sense of Wolves’ substitutions being made with tomorrow night’s trip to Burnley in mind. That match continues what now feels a pivotal fortnight as O’Neil’s men try to maintain hopes of European qualification, with a six-pointer against West Ham to follow at Molineux on Saturday before a reunion with Nuno Espirito Santo in Nottingham seven days later.

Much as fortune with injury has been cruel, should Wolves falter then scrutiny will inevitably fall back toward the January window when they failed to add an experienced forward and allowed both Fabio Silva and Sasa Kaladjzic to depart on loan. Neither, admittedly, made much of an impact through the first half of the season. Either would have made a welcome back-up now.

For all Wolves probably didn’t expect to be in such a lofty league position, it will still be tough to escape the sense of opportunity missed should the season fizzle out.

The fact this defeat followed that gut-wrenching FA Cup exit to Coventry prior to the international break only adds further to the simmering mood of frustration.

Victory saw Villa equal their total win tally from last season and with Manchester United only managing a draw at Brentford, the dream of Champions League football took another step closer to becoming a reality.

Aside from an opening 25 minutes in which Wolves midfielder Tommy Doyle was the game’s most dominant player, this was probably their most comfortable home league win since November’s 3-0 triumph over Fulham and any questions about squad depth, so prominent over the first half of the campaign, have long been answered with Diaby and Zaniolo the latest players to come to the fore after both experienced something of a winter hibernation.

It was Diaby who broke the deadlock nine minutes before half-time, thumping home from the edge of the box after the quick-thinking Leon Bailey had spotted before anyone else an opportunity to exploit space down the right-hand side of the Wolves defence.

The goal was Diaby’s first in the league at Villa Park since December, on his first top flight start since January and he has now either scored or set-up a goal in four of the last five games. At the time Villa most needed him to step up, the £43million record signing has obliged.

So too has Zaniolo, who backed up his goal-scoring cameo at West Ham prior to the break with another eye-catching performance off the bench here. But for a sharp save from Jose Sa, it would have delivered another goal and while it seems likely the 24-year-old’s long-term future lies away from Villa Park, he could yet have a big say in making this season a memorable one before his loan from Galatasaray expires in the summer.

That will certainly need to be the case should Watkins, who missed a good chance to open the scoring after being sent through on goal, be absent for any serious length of time.

The striker’s early exit, after complaining of pain in his hamstring, could yet prove to be Saturday’s significant moment. He is not a player Villa can afford to lose for long.

For the moment, they march on to Manchester City on Wednesday with a sense of renewed momentum. It is Wolves who must quickly rediscover some of the latter if this most promising of seasons isn’t to slide toward a slightly underwhelming conclusion.