Lambert delighted by 'blistering' Villa display

Lambert's former club Norwich got off to a perfect start at Villa Park when Wes Hoolahan put them ahead after just three minutes, but a magnificent brace from striker Christian Benteke turned the game on its head before the half-hour mark.

Leandro Bacuna then added a third for the hosts, and Sebastien Bassong put through his own net to hand Villa a 4-1 lead before the break.

And Lambert was effusive in his assessment of Villa's reaction to falling behind.

"It wasn't a great start for us by any stretch of the imagination, but for that half-an-hour period I thought we were absolutely blistering," said the Scot.

Benteke is set to attract the limelight after his double, but Lambert insisted all members of his side should get the plaudits for a superb team performance.

"For me the counter-attack (for the third goal) was absolutely fantastic, but Christian's first goal probably set the tone as to what was going to happen and his first goal was brilliant," he added.

"But when you look at the third and fourth goals, team-wise it was excellent."

Villa went into the game on the back of a four-match winless run in the Premier League, which saw them slip towards relegation trouble.

However, Lambert claimed he never had any doubts over the ability of his team.

"Against Cardiff (a 0-0 draw) we should have won, David Marshall had one of those nights where he saved everything, he was excellent," he said. 

"And against Newcastle (a 1-0 defeat) there wasn't too much wrong apart from not having that finishing touch and today it all came together.

"So the performances were pretty decent (but) we just had to take the chances."