I've never rated Downing that highly, but he's been great for Villa this season when I've seen them. Obviously a good player to be fair to him.
Seemed to have a bit of a lull in his career, but I agree, been decent whenever I've seen him this year. It's just symptomatic of this season - if Villa had 6 or 7 more points and were 7th instead of 16th, Downing would have been talked about a lot more I reckon.