Aston Villa Thrash Hull City, But Champions League Still Not in Sight

Aston Villa may have convincingly beaten Hull City 3-0 at Villa Park, but so what?

It was a very decent performance from Martin O'Neill's men, with James Milner proving his worth in Fabio Capello's England World Cup squad following a man of the match showing.

However, the match was against Hull City, at home; a game Aston Villa should be comfortable winning anyway.

If anything, the match showed that the Villans are actually somewhat unlikely of claiming that lucrative fourth UEFA Champions League spot come the end of the season.

Why? Well, for a start, the Villans are perhaps becoming slightly too reliant on wing wizard James Milner for goals and assists.

Stewart Downing no doubt impressed on his Villa Park debut, but he just didn't provide that cutting edge Milner did. As for Ashley Young, the England-hopeful's ability has appeared to deteriorate this season, especially with his finishing when finding himself in goalscoring positions.

James Milner has the ability to find the perfect pass, deliver a brilliant cross, and as he showed with his 20-yard lob on Saturday, finish like no other player in the team.

Without Milner, Aston Villa could become a bit like Liverpool, a team who are nothing without their talisman, Steven Gerrard.

Apart from the importance of James Milner, Villa also struggle against the big teams.

It's all well and good beating a team lower down the table such as Hull City, but bigger Premier League times pose a big problem for Aston Villa.

They may have beaten Liverpool 3-2 at Anfield, but the previous weekend's 1-1 annihilation at the mercy of Tottenham Hotspur at home proves exactly why Villa aren't the most capable applicants for that elusive fourth Premier League position.

The word "annihilation" is used because Aston Villa were completely subjugated in that match and quite frankly deserved nothing from the game.

If they achieve fourth place, the Villans will definitely need to do better against fellow fourth place rivals like Tottenham.

And finally, while it may have become rather cliché, Aston Villa's lack of strength in-depth will almost always prove to be a problem in the Villa Park outfit achieving success.

So Martin O'Neill may have seen his side beat Hull City 3-0 with quite an impressive performance, but if they don't replicate that type of form against the bigger side, this result will prove nothing.