Aston Villa kept their play-off hopes alive with a 4-0 thrashing over promotion rivals, Derby County at the weekend in front of a capacity crowd at Villa Park. 

Dean Smith's side dominated from start to finish and sent out a real statement to the rest of their promotion rivals with the vital win.

Smith has a potential selection dilemma ahead of their game with fierce local rivals, Birmingham City this weekend though which leaves him with a difficult decision on his hands.

The Villa boss has John McGinn back available for the game after he served the last of his two-match-suspension at the weekend in the win over Derby.

But with the Villans running out convincing winners against Frank Lampard's side, Smith will surely be reluctant to make changes to a winning side.

However, there will certainly be calls for McGinn to return to the starting XI in place of Glenn Whelan who has been somewhat of a weak spot in the Villa team in recent weeks.

At the age of 35, there will be questions about whether Whelan can perform to the required standard in the Championship this season.

McGinn will be itching to get back into the starting XI at the earliest of opportunities and will fancy his chances of replacing Whelan in the starting XI.

There were doubts as to whether he would adjust to the physical demands of English football, but he has more than silenced those critics this season since arriving from Scottish side Hibernian for a fee believed to be in the region of £2.1m according to the Express and Star. 

McGinn has been one of Aston Villa's most consistent performers this season and he'll feel hard done by if he isn't to make an immediate return to Dean Smith's starting XI.

He's a better and more energetic option to have in the midfield and will be key to keeping the likes of Gary Gardner and Maikel Kieftenbeld quiet this weekend.

It's one of the biggest games of the season for the supporters , with Dean Smith needing to be name his strongest XI, and McGinn certainly falls into that category.