THE glass ceiling is looking increasingly brittle. At lunchtime Arsenal displayed all the sure-footedness of Devon Loch and stumbled yet again. Two points behind them, but coming on as determinedly as Devon Loch’s conqueror ESB, lay Aston Villa.

A few hours later Arsène Wenger might have fancied that he had been gifted a get-out-of-jail card when Johan Elmander swept a resurgent Bolton ahead at Villa Park. Hardly. Four goals and one exhilarating performance later, Aston Villa are, for now, the fourth of the big four.

“We’ll win it now,” joked manager Martin O’Neill. “I’m not playing this down, but those teams have experience, the bigger squads and the capability to win four on the trot, which would be very difficult for us.”

Although Gary Megson has yet to achieve flavour of the month status at the Reebok, Bolton arrived buoyed by his Manager of the Month award. After spending the afternoon in defensive disarray, they left having failed to cope with the pace of Gabby Agbonlahor and the precision of Ashley Young. “They were fantastic,” purred O’Neill, while Megson admitted that “some of our defending was remarkably poor”.

With both teams stringing five across the centre, the Villa Park midfield was as crowded as Woolworths last week. This meant the penalty areas were as crowded as Woolworths next week, until Agbonlahor and Young wreaked havoc after Bolton took the lead.

That sublime opener promised much but brought only retribution. Kevin Davies collected Curtis Davies’s weak header and reached the byline ahead of Martin Laursen and Luke Young to cross low. Elmander exquisitely clipped his fourth goal in four games past a startled Brad Friedel.

The afternoon could have taken a different course when Gretar Steinsson headed Gavin McCann’s corner firmly against the bar. Alas for Bolton, having seen the mountain top, giddiness struck and they tumbled down.

Laursen bypassed the midfield hordes with a long punt forwards. A flat-footed, ball-watching Andy O’Brien was beaten by Agbonlahor and as the ball dropped, he volleyed home in some style. “A nonsense goal,” sighed Megson, “a nightmare.”

Hitherto so assured, Bolton promptly dissolved into panic-stricken uncertainty. Steinsson gave Gareth Barry all the time in the world to cross from the left. Under pressure from Laursen, Kevin Davies obligingly headed past Jussi Jaaskelainen.

That concluded the first-half scoring, but not the incident. Referee Lee Probert twice denied Villa penalties: first when Steinsson clumsily clattered into Ashley Young; then, so obviously that Megson saw it, when former Villain Gary Cahill turned villain to palm Ashley Young’s corner off the on-rushing Laursen’s head. Probert sloped off at the break, surrounded by frothing Villa players, serenaded by the Holte End announcing: “You’re not fit to referee.” Respect sometimes has to be earned.

Shortly after the break, Curtis Davies came close again when he headed Ashley Young’s corner into the ground and then over.

Megson decluttered his midfield by introducing Ricardo Gardner and pushing Kevin Davies and Matthew Taylor forward, but the song remained the same.

Bolton’s chief tormentors combined in the 67th minute for Villa’s third. Taylor and Steinsson failed to close down Young and Agbonlahor ghosted past O’Brien and Cahill with a stealth Martin Peters would have admired, heading past Jaaskelainen.

The swashbuckling pair combined again for Villa’s fourth. The bedraggled O’Brien backed off Agbonlahor, who bided his time and slipped the ball through for Ashley Young to crash home.

In the 85th minute, Steinsson crossed deep and Kevin Davies imperiously headed into the correct goal, but Bolton were by then too cowed and too beaten to haul themselves back into contention.

Star man: Gabriel Agbonlahor (Villa)

Yellow card: Bolton: A O’Brien

Referee: L Probert

Attendance: 35,134

ASTON VILLA: Friedel 6, Cuellar 6, Davies 6, Laursen 7, L Young 6, Milner 6 (Reo-Coker 69min), Sidwell 6, Petrov 5, Barry 6, A Young 8 (Harewood 81min), Agbonlahor 8 (Shorey 88min)

BOLTON: Jaaskelainen 6, Steinsson 5, Cahill 5, A O’Brien 5, Samuel 6, Davies 6, Nolan 6, Muamba 5 (Gardner 54min, 6), McCann 5, Taylor 6, Elmander 6 (Smolarek 75min)