Aston Villa skipper Stiliyan Petrov believes striker Darren Bent is back to his best after he scored his 100th Premier League goal in Wednesday night's 2-2 home draw with QPR.
Club record signing Bent became the 22nd player to reach the three-figure milestone as he sparked a Villa fightback from 2-0 down with a typically clinical close-range finish.
Bent struggled to make an impact earlier in the campaign and was not helped by a lack of creativity in the Villa side.
But the England player has now been on target for the past four games to reach double figures for the season and in total has netted 19 times in 38 appearances for Villa.
Petrov said: "Darren is our main striker and, although he recently went through a spell when he wasn't scoring, there's no doubt we are once again seeing the Darren Bent we know best.
"To get to 100 Premier League goals is a great achievement.
"It is a remarkable personal milestone which not many players can claim to have done and he can be proud of that.
"Not that he will stop at a century, of course. Darren is perfectly capable of scoring many more and that can only be good news for Villa."
Bent is showing signs of forming an effective partnership with on-loan Los Angeles Galaxy striker Robbie Keane, alongside whom he played at Tottenham.
Keane has been pulling the strings in a deeper role and followed up his two goals against Wolves on his full debut with another effective performance.
Petrov said: "Robbie has been on fire since he joined us. He has performed superbly at this level for many years and is proving he can still do it.
"When he joined us, he hadn't trained for a month but it's almost like he has never been away from the Premier League.
"He has done so much at club and international level and we are certainly feeling the benefit of having him on board even if it's only until the end of this month."
While Bent celebrates joining the ton-up club, Villa boss Alex McLeish is hoping winger Charles N'Zogbia's first goal for Villa will kickstart his career at the club.
N'Zogbia has failed to live up to his £9million price tag since his summer move from Wigan.
But McLeish said: "The finish and second-half performance against QPR were much more in keeping with what I expect of Charles.
"Hopefully that kickstarts his Villa career. Charles is a big player. These guys are Premier League players earning a lot of money and we expect top performances from them."
McLeish was also full of praise for the mental strength shown by left-back Stephen Warnock after his own goal doubled QPR's lead and led to him being booed by Villa fans.
It was the latest error by Warnock after his mistake gifted Swansea their opening goal and then only a fine save from Shay Given prevented him conceding an own goal against Everton.
McLeish said: "You have got to credit Stevie. He did not hide. We have all made mistakes. I made one once in my career when I played! You have to not let it affect you.
"It's hard when the fans are having a go at you. That is the hardest thing of all for any player to handle.
"But he came through it and hopefully it's a big help to the toughness of the player."
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