Aston Villa vs Sheffield United: Steve Bruce hoping to avoid bad streak

The visitors arrive on a run of four defeats from five which has seen them fall from the coat-tails of Cardiff and almost into the clutches of the play-off chasing pack.

Though the home side’s downturn has been nowhere near as dramatic, the level of expectation at Villa Park means a three-game winless run has been enough to make supporters just as anxious as their Blades counterparts, arguably more so.

The good news for boss Steve Bruce is that, at this point, a win is all that’s really required to lift the mood and ease fears Villa might be poised to enter the kind of extended malaise which have been a feature of his reign.

Bruce will, understandably, point out the fact last Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Derby was only Villa’s third in 19 Championship games.

Nervous fans, however, look at the 10-point margin which no separates their team and second-placed Cardiff and wonder whether they will ever close the gap.

For all their progress in recent months – and for a time Villa were the division’s in-form team behind Wolves – the distance between them and Bluebirds has never been greater than now.

Following the 0-0 draw with Middlesbrough on September 12, which without question represented the lowest point of Villa’s campaign, the gap was nine points.

Since then Bruce’s team have collected 30 points from a possible 45 and climbed from the bottom seven to the top six. Yet their primary goal, the automatic promotion places, has remained frustratingly at arms length.

Four games in 10 days over the festive period will not be decisive for Villa. They may well, however, decide the height of their aspirations over the second half of the campaign.

“There are no guarantees in this league but I am quietly confident we will get through the sticky patch,” said Bruce.

“Derby is the first time we have lost away from home since Wolves, which is a long time ago now. We have to dust ourselves down, see what we have got and go again.”

Bruce will once more be able to call on Keinan Davis after the teenage striker missed the defeat at Derby through illness.

Winger Andre Green is also back in training but unlikely to be risked having recovered from hamstring recovery. Midfielder Henri Lansbury, another who missed out at Derby, is being assessed.