One move has changed everything for Newcastle. They were 12th in the Premier League a few weeks ago when Eddie Howe shuffled his midfield and found an ace in Sandro Tonali. Now you have a deck full of aces.
Four victories in a row, three of them in the League without concessions, place them fifth and in the semifinals of the Carabao Cup. As things stand, that's qualification for the Champions League.
It would be a mistake to say that this is also the Newcastle of yesteryear, because this new version does not need to play with its foot on the ground from start to finish. Not when they have Tonali behind the wheel in a new number 6 position. Sometimes it's the cruise control.
And that's what's been so impressive about his midseason resurgence. They have won with minimal effort, even if this match was the most difficult of their quartet of victories.
They had to be better here than they needed to be against Leicester, Brentford and Ipswich, and were no doubt helped by Jhon Durán's stupid red card in the first half.
But Howe's men were still superior to Villa, who they now find themselves ahead of in the standings. This win also saw them overtake Manchester City, and you wouldn't have thought that was possible after picking up two points from four games before this run.
Anthony Gordon gave Newcastle the lead after a minute with a magnificent shot from the left.
He received the ball from Joelinton before sending the St James's Park faithful into a frenzy.
Aston Villa returned to the game but Jhon Durán was sent off for a stamp
Alexander Isak then scored his 11th of the Premier League campaign with a cross.
Newcastle started fast and led after 81 seconds when Tonali won the ball on halfway. He fed Bruno Guimaraes, who helped get to Joelinton (there's Howe's midfield three) and found Anthony Gordon.
The winger cut inside with his right boot and found the top corner from 18 yards.
Villa were getting into it again when Durán was sent off for falling on Fabián Schar's back after the sliding defender had advanced the ball to him.
As he left the field of play, Durán kicked a water bottle with much more force than he had hit Schar. But force is irrelevant, and the referees were correct in assuming that the Colombian intended to hit Schar's back with his cleats.
He had a choice: plant his boot on the grass or on the opponent's column. He chose the latter and chose red.
Newcastle made it two just before the hour when Alexander Isak finished off a brilliant team move involving Guimaraes and Jacob Murphy, who rolled across the six-yard box for the Swede to convert.
And the scoring was completed in injury time when Joeltinon entered the penalty area and tipped into the top corner.
Tonali didn't score this time (he scored twice during last week's Carabao Cup win over Brentford) but he is the reason for the change. At number 6, he is Newcastle's number 1.