Jhon Duran's first Premier League goal since September allowed Aston Villa to make it back-to-back wins and piled further misery on Southampton.

The Colombian striker is usually used as a substitute but scored on what was his first league start of the season to lift Villa to fifth.

Unai Emery's Villa side have returned to form with victories over Brentford and the Saints after an eight-game winless run.

They are two points behind fourth-placed Manchester City, who they welcome on 21 December.

Duran's ninth goal of the season and his overall performance earned praised from Emery.

"Fantastic, because he is helping us in everything, scoring goals, and we are very demanding with him tactically. Today he did the work," said the manager.

"The most important thing was how he worked and scoring as well is better for the team."

Duran has made just four starts when taking all competitions into account, with Emery using the 20-year-old carefully at this stage of his career.

Emery added: "We have had to try to stop his passionate moments sometimes but that is something natural, he is young and he wants everything quickly."

Southampton are being cut adrift at the bottom and are eight points from the safety line having lost 12 of their 15 top flight games.

Russell Martin's visitors showed promise, but a soft underbelly cost them in the 24th minute when Taylor Harwood-Bellis failed to deal with a hopeful ball to Duran and the striker raced clear to score.

"I love Taylor and I don't want to criticise him, but what happened can't happen," said Martin.

"Smooth the game out and pass the ball to a team-mate or you defend and clear it and we did neither. The goals we concede are so poor."

Southampton also failed to manage a shot on target and are the lowest scorers in the Premier League with just 11 goals.

"It's madness," said Martin. "We had one where Flynn [Downes] is in the middle of the goal, Cam Archer is in the box.

"I don't know what more I can give to the players to make them believe and that extra spark.

"Other than stop the game and tell players how good they are and what they can go and do, it's just that bit of spark and belief in the final third."

Duran's goal was the highlight of a forgettable game. Villa did not need to be at their best and Southampton lacked the quality to recover from conceding another sloppy goal.

Villa were able to collect only their second clean sheet in the league this season and goalkeeper Emi Martinez was never tested.

The hosts allowed the game to drift in the second half, unable to build on their lead, but they were never in serious danger and Joe Lumley denied John McGinn the chance to make victory more comfortable in injury time.

It is hard to see Southampton surviving, but what is clear is that they need help.

They have an identity and philosophy but the quality is lacking and they will need to use the January transfer window well to give themselves a chance of staying up.

The effort is in no doubt but at Aston Villa it was another soft goal that cost them, Harwood-Bellis failing to deal with a standard long ball when it looked like Nathan Wood had Duran covered.

Southampton need some clever additions in January to give themselves a better chance of staying up, but the problems on the pitch could stem from the setback that saw director of football Jason Wilcox leave to join Manchester United in the summer.

Going into the Premier League without an experienced replacement was about to affect their summer transfer window and immediately put pressure on boss Russell Martin.

Given their current position, those players who might make a real difference in January may take some convincing that they should get involved in a relegation fight.

Duran has not been able to maintain his explosive start to the season and still needs to shake off the 'super-sub' tag.

Winners against West Ham, Leicester and Everton while coming off the bench thrust him into the headlines.

But he has had to wait until December for his first Premier League start of the season, with manager Emery on this occasion opting to give Ollie Watkins a breather ahead of Tuesday's Champions League trip to RB Leipzig.

Duran was able to deliver, but he needs to do it consistently.

Nine goals before Christmas for a player who is second choice behind Watkins is a good return, but this was his first Premier League strike for two and a half months.

It remains to be seen whether his efforts convince manager Emery he is worthy of starting more matches.

His only other starts this season have come against Wycombe and Crystal Palace in the Carabao Cup and Bologna in the Champions League.

The high of his winner against Bayern Munich in October may not be repeated, and while he took his goal well against Southampton the likelihood is he will be back on the bench in Germany on Tuesday.