James Milner looked every inch an England player at Villa Park on Saturday — even down to a dismal failure from the penalty spot.

Hitting the net from 12 yards out, though, is about the only thing that appeared beyond Milner, who scored one of Aston Villa’s goals and had a foot in three others. Two-footed, hard-working and resilient, he is versatile, too, as Fabio Capello, the England manager, knows very well, having used him as a stand-in left back. And with any luck, it may not come to penalties in South Africa next summer.

“He has been absolutely brilliant for us,” Martin O’Neill, the Villa manager, said. “James would obviously be a player that Capello would really enjoy having because he’s prepared to put the work in and he’s improving.

“I haven’t played him at left back, but he can play left and right, so he and Ashley Young interchange when they feel it’s right to do so. He has got a good footballing knowledge and a good footballing brain.”

But while one England World Cup possible was strengthening his case, another was weakening his. Gary Cahill, the Bolton Wanderers central defender, had a poor game at the centre of a defence that has conceded 13 goals in its past three games.

John Carew outjumped him to reach Milner’s cross before Villa’s first goal, scored by Young, then slipped past him to set up Gabriel Agbonlahor for the second. Cahill made partial amends when his deflected shot came off the post for Johan Elmander to halve the arrears, but Carew, receiving from Milner, bulldozed straight through him to restore the two-goal lead. Milner scored after his own poorly hit penalty was saved by Jussi Jaaskelainen, and his cross gave Carlos Cuéllar the fifth.

“The lad [Cahill] is a good player, but you don’t get to where he’s got to playing like that,” Gary Megson, the Bolton manager, said. “That was not a good game for Gary, but he’s in there with quite a few others.”

Aston Villa (4-4-2): B Friedel 6 — L Young 5, C Cuéllar 6, R Dunne 6, S Warnock 6 — J Milner 9 (sub: N Defouneso, 82min), N Reo-Coker 6 (sub: C Gardner 86), S Sidwell 5 (sub: F Delph, 86), A Young 7 — J Carew 9, G Agbonlahor 7. Substitutes not used: B Guzan, M Albrighton, N Shorey, C Clark. Booked: Gardner. Next: Burnley (a).

Bolton Wanderers (4-1-4-1): J Jaaskelainen 7 — S Ricketts 5 (sub: G Steinsson, 69 4), G Cahill 4, Z Knight 4, P Robinson 4 — F Muamba 5 — Lee Chung Yong 7, R Gardner 5, T Cohen 5 (sub: J Elmander, 29 5), M Taylor 4 — K Davies 5. Substitutes not used: A Al Habsi, M Davies, I Klasnic, C Basham, A O’Brien. Booked: Cohen, Cahill, Robinson, K Davies. Next: Blackburn Rovers (h).

Referee: M Clattenburg Attendance: 38,101