Analysis: Villa give Dean Smith the perfect start

And so it proved, as the home side, roared on by a sell out 42,000 strong crowd, dominated the game for most parts and should have scored more than just the one goal.

The atmosphere before kick off inside Villa Park was electric, as the fans turned out in their numbers to welcome ‘one of their own’ to the dugout.

Smith was treated to a rousing reception before a minutes applause was observed for the late Ellis.

After the tribute before kick off, as Smith said in his programme notes, it was time to get down to business.

And his players did that in the best possible way by grabbing a goal inside ten minutes to settle any pre-match nerves.

On eight minutes, a Jack Grealish free kick struck the wall but the midfielder kept the move alive to find Ahmed Elmohamady, and he hung up a cross for Tammy Abraham to bury a header into the bottom corner against his former employers.

Smith made two changes from the last game, with captain James Chester returning from a ban, and Albert Adomah replacing Conor Hourinhane.

From the off Grealish was proving to be the Villa dangerman.

His low free kick from the right beat the Swansea defence on 20 minutes and was inches away from being turned in by Chester at the back post.

Just two minutes later the midfielder found Neil Taylor on the left, and his cross was almost fired home by another impressive performer John McGinn.

The players seemed to know the magnitude of the occasion and were rising to the challenge perfectly.

McGinn’s quick free quick almost led to a second on the half hour mark as he found Adomah, whose deflected cross looked to be beating Kristoffer Nordfeldt, but the keeper back peddled and clawed the ball away.

They were on the front foot throughout the first half, and restricted Swansea to two wayward headers.

However they were almost hit with a sucker punch at the end of the half, but Orjan Nyland was equal to Jay Fulton’s effort following a low cross from Connor Roberts.

There was no let up at the start of the second period, with Villa coming out gunning for that all important second goal.

Grealish stung the palms of Nordfeldt, before Adomah hit the side netting and Grealish lashed into the Holte End.

Then within the space of ten minutes, Abraham spurned two golden chances to seal the points.

Adomah’s left wing cross found the front man unmarked but he could only fire at the keeper, before he headed into the ground and over from a Yannick Bolasie cross.

Throughout the game Villa were winning the ball back in key areas and that was largely down to the impressive McGinn.

He was winning second balls, pinching possession and setting up many of the Villa attacks alongside Grealish.

However the longer the game went on, the more the tension and nervousness began to rise inside Villa Park.

Swansea were always going to have a spell, and then did in the last 20 minutes.

First Bersant Celina cut in from the left and curled an effort that beat Nyland but also beat his left hand post.

Then 15 minutes from time substitute Tom Carroll crossed from the left and found Fulton, but Nyland produced a superb save to push away his header.

Then Nyland was the hero again a minute from time, flinging himself to his left to deny Mike Van Der Hoorn a late leveler and secure the three points.

It could have been more but it was a deserved victory for Villa and a perfect start to Smith’s tenure at the club.