Tony Xia: September is crucial for Aston Villa

Villa resume their campaign on Saturday when they host Brentford at the start of another busy three-week period which features a further five league fixtures and a third-round Carabao Cup tie against Middlesbrough.

A return of just five points from the opening five games has left Steve Bruce’s team 18th in the table and the manager has already acknowledged they must quickly make up ground on those above.

Xia echoed the same sentiment over the weekend when he tweeted: “A crucial month. Time to build real confidence and ‘only results matter’ culture at Villa.”

Hopes of making a quick start to the season were scuppered by back-to-back away defeats at Cardiff and Reading.

Bruce then found himself fielding questions on his future with the campaign barely a fortnight old before a solid week in which Villa put four goals past Norwich and Wigan and earned a first away point with a 1-1 draw at Bristol City.

The manager, who described the opening month as the toughest he’d ever known as a manager, admitted his team had fallen some way short of their target.

“We are probably five points away from where we should be,” said Bruce. “We have a big month coming up – can we make it up?”

James Chester has meanwhile claimed the clean sheets will come for Villa’s new-look defence.

Villa are yet to record a shut-out this term and have conceded nine goals in five league games, despite the high-profile arrival of former England skipper John Terry during the summer.

Yet Chester, currently away on international duty with Wales, believes they are on the right track.

“We’ve not quite kept as many clean sheets as we would have liked, but hopefully that will come,” said Chester.

“John’s been great around the squad. He’s not come across as being superior to anyone else.

“He’s been one of the lads straight away, hasn’t seen himself as higher than anyone.

“He’s even told us to let him know if he’s not pulling his weight!”