Express & Star

Comment: Form in danger of deserting Aston Villa as Christmas approaches

At a time of year when the season traditionally heats up, Villa are suddenly in danger of going off the boil.

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Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Derby might only have been their third reverse in 19 Championship games and they remain fifth in the table.

But there can be no disguising the fact that the momentum gained during a run of nine wins from 12, which catapulted Steve Bruce’s team from the lower reaches of the division to within touching distance of the automatic promotion places, has been lost.

A winless run which now stands at three matches means Bruce and his players head into a hectic festive period facing more questions than they have since mid-September.

Such blips are of course common in a division so competitive. Yet there can surely be no worse time to have one. The visit of Sheffield United this Saturday is the first of four games in 10 days which, while unlikely to prove decisive, could yet go a long way to determining the realistic extent of Villa’s aspirations over the second half of the campaign.

From being hot in pursuit of the top two just a few weeks ago, the gap to second-placed Cardiff now stands at ten points, while the briefly comfortable cushion they held over the play-off position chasers is eroded to one.

Put simply, Villa cannot afford to let their sudden malaise extend too much longer.

Bruce should at least have Keinan Davis back to face the Blades. The 19-year-old missed the defeat at Derby due to illness and his proved one absence too many for an already-depleted Villa, against a Rams unit who have snatched the crown as the Championship’s most in-form team behind Wolves.

The manager might have had a point when he accused his team of ‘gifting’ the game to the hosts. Certainly, Glenn Whelan’s error which led to Andreas Weimann’s opener was a once every few seasons kind of clanger which the usually dependable midfielder may never repeat again.

It would be wrong, though, to write this off as merely a bad day at the office, not when the issues afflicting Villa’s attack were again exposed.

Davis has quickly become integral to Villa’s style and without him they lacked a focal point in the final third on which to balance their approach play.

Eager to maintain the shape which has delivered recent success on the road, Bruce opted to field Josh Onomah as a makeshift striker. But while it quickly became evident the plan was not working, neither Scott Hogan and Gabriel Agbonlahor were utilised from the bench until midway through the second half.

Both have, admittedly, only recently returned from injury. The blunt truth, however, is that though his attacking resources may be limited through the loss of Jonathan Kodjia, Bruce needs to find a way of getting a better return from those resources still at his disposal.

Error-strewn as the performance might have been, perhaps the most frustrating aspect for Villa was that they could easily have taken something from the game with more direction in the final third.

Jack Grealish at least looks leaner and meaner than for some time but like his team-mates lacked an end product. Villa hogged more than two-thirds of possession yet a Robert Snodgrass effort, cleared off the line by Derby skipper Richard Keogh, was the only time they seriously threatened an equaliser.

Hope remained until Johnny Russell bagged Derby’s second in stoppage time to leave Bruce with plenty to ponder.