Ollie Watkins climbed off the bench to help fire Aston Villa back into the Champions League places after a 3-0 win over Southampton.

Villa were labouring against the already-relegated Saints until Watkins struck, just seven minutes after replacing Marcus Rashford and four minutes after Marco Asensio had missed a penalty which Watkins had won.

Fellow substitutes Donyell Malen and John McGinn put the match beyond Southampton – the latter after Asensio missed a second spot-kick – as Villa made it four straight wins to move into the top five.

The trip to St Mary’s was sandwiched in between Villa’s Champions League quarter-final with Paris St Germain, with Unai Emery’s side needing to overturn a 3-1 first-leg deficit in Tuesday’s second leg.

Saints, by contrast, have the slightly more modest ambition of trying not to become officially the worst team in Premier League history.

Having already become the first club to be relegated with as many as seven games of the season remaining, they now have six left to try to eke out the two points required to overhaul Derby’s record low tally of 11.

Simon Rusk, appointed interim boss after Ivan Juric’s painful 14-match reign was ended on Monday, went with a back five in a bid to plug their leaky defence.

But Villa opened it up inside 40 seconds when Youri Tielemans played Rashford through on goal, although Jan Bednarek recovered well to block his shot.

Southampton are the lowest scorers in all four divisions with a paltry 23 goals, but they should have taken the lead after 15 minutes when Kyle Walker-Peters’ threaded pass put Cameron Archer in behind.

The former Villa striker shrugged off the attentions of Tyrone Mings, only to see his shot across goal beaten away by Emiliano Martinez.

Early in the second half Bednarek came the closest yet to breaking the deadlock when he met a Villa corner and headed it inches over his own crossbar.

Rashford curled a 65th-minute free-kick too high – and was substituted for Watkins moments later.

Three minutes minutes later Watkins was put through by Morgan Rogers and felled in the area by Bednarek, but Aaron Ramsdale guessed correctly to keep out Asensio’s spot-kick.

However, Watkins soon conjured up a superb goal after latching on to Tielemans’ pass and expertly lifting it over the onrushing Ramsdale, the ball grazing the underside of the crossbar as it looped in.

Malen rifled home a sweet second across Ramsdale after being teed up by Rogers.

In stoppage time Asensio got the chance to make amends for his penalty miss after McGinn was tripped by Jack Stephens.

Although Ramsdale went the same way with the same outcome, this time McGinn was on hand to snaffle the rebound and give Villa a spring in their step ahead of PSG’s visit.