BIRMINGHAM (REUTERS) - Aston Villa made light of playing half the match with 10 men to thrash Crystal Palace 3-0 in the Premier League on Saturday (Dec 26).

Bertrand Traore put an impressive Villa side ahead early on but the hosts had Tyrone Mings dismissed shortly before the break after picking up a second yellow card.

It made little difference as they outplayed Palace in the second half with Kortney Hause heading in from close range to double their lead in the 66th minute.

Anwar El Ghazi's rasping finish 10 minutes later wrapped up the points for Villa and they could have won by a bigger margin had Ollie Watkins not been denied by the post late on.

Villa climbed to sixth in the standings with 25 points from 13 games while Palace stay in 13th place.