Philippe Coutinho orchestrates Aston Villa’s rout of Southampton

The third most expensive footballer can be an incongruous presence in a mid-table meeting but he illuminated it. If the £142m fee Barcelona paid for Philippe Coutinho suggested his talents belonged on grander stages, he graced this one, gliding and ghosting around, confounding and eluding Southampton. They had held both Manchester clubs on an unbeaten run that spanned seven games but which was ended emphatically by Coutinho. Danny Ings’ first reunion with his former club proved his most productive afternoon for his new employers, yielding two assists and a goal, but the architect of Steven Gerrard’s biggest win as Villa manager was his flagship signing.

Coutinho played a part in the first two goals, scored the third and departed to a standing ovation. Before then, he could have registered one of the quickest hat-tricks in Premier League history, courtesy of an extraordinary four-minute period where he had three golden chances, two supplied by Ollie Watkins and one saved by Fraser Forster, and still found time to set up Douglas Luiz’s goal. It was no wonder that Oriol Romeu, Southampton’s defensive midfielder and the man whose duties included subduing Coutinho, walked off at half-time shaking his head. Coutinho’s capacity to make excellence look effortless must have been depressing.

Irrepressible as he was, it was not quite a one-man demolition job. Watkins was outstanding as well, scoring for a second successive Saturday and combining beautifully with Coutinho. His double act with Ings has rarely felt as natural or as fluent, with the question of what to do with the two strikers seeming a conundrum for both Villa managers this season.

If Gerrard reaped a rich dividend for last week’s decision to pair them, putting