NORWICH plunged deeper into relegation trouble as they were outplayed by red-hot Villa.
The Canaries could not cope with the pace, movement and power of David O'Leary's team and were lucky not to have been on the receiving end of an even worse defeat.
Only keeper Robert Green stood in the way of further embarrassment and on this performance not even $3million new boy Dean Ashton can save them from relegation.
Norwich boss Nigel Worthington admitted: "We worked hard but Villa were too good and they showed the quality they have as an established Premiership side.
"There are still four or five teams down at the bottom and we will keep fighting to the last whistle of the season.
"I thought Dean Ashton did well on his debut. It was a big step up for him and he i still learning but he'll get the time to do that here."
Solid
Villa strolled home with goals from Liam Ridgewell, Lee Hendrie and Nobby Solano. And boss O'Leary's only moan was they did not cash in more on their superiority.
He said: "I am delighted that we won and scored goals. We wouldn't be getting 38,000 people in to watch us if we weren't playing some good stuff.
"Unfortunately in recent weeks there has been no end product and my only complaint today was that we didn't score more goals."
Ashton had a solid debut but, unfortunately, his first contribution came at the wrong end for Villa's opener.
Solano's ninth-minute free-kick was headed on by Ridgewell but it took a big deflection off Ashton to leave Green flat-footed.
The new striker did threaten at the other end after Mattias Jonson skipped past Ridgewell but Ashton's first-time shot flew wide.
Divert
Villa made it 2-0 on 27 minutes when Juan Pablo Angel had time to pick out Hendrie who hammered in.
Ashton was unlucky not to score five minutes before the interval as he robbed Mathieu Berson and, although he mis-hit his shot, Ridgewell deflected it back towards goal and Thomas Sorensen, going the wrong way, managed to stick out a hand and spectacularly divert it over the bar.
The impressive Green had to make a string of saves to keep his side in the game.
The best of them came after 50 minutes when dangerman Hendrie exchanged passes with Solano and bent in a curling long-range shot. Green reacted acrobatically to save and then recovered to block Solano.
Norwich did go close twice through Damien Francis as he fired wide from Darren Huckerby's pass and then volleyed over from 20 yards.
But Solano was left totally unmarked after 76 minutes to score Villa's third when he met Hendrie's mis-directed shot with a neat header.
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