Monday analysis: Tammy Abraham again proves a man to depend on as Aston Villa secure vital win

One has been Tammy Abraham’s ability to score goals, the other their team’s determination to make life far harder than it needs to be.

On Saturday, both were again in evidence as Dean Smith’s men ended a two month wait for a home victory with a nervy 2-1 triumph over Ipswich, the Championship’s bottom club.

Abraham scored in each half to take his tally for the season to 19 and for a few minutes just past the hour mark, after the on loan Chelsea striker had rolled home a penalty, Villa looked poised to kick on and perhaps record their biggest victory of the campaign.

Freddie Sears’s 76th minute thunderbolt altered that view in an instant and when Trevoh Chalobah then sent a header against the post shortly afterward, the hosts were suddenly clinging on.

Yet cling on they did and though the finale might have ended up being far less prettier than desired, ultimately that was the only thing which mattered.

A first win since Boxing Day means Villa now head to Reading next weekend with their confidence just a little improved, in the hope of further cutting a gap to the top six which now stands at just four points.

By then, Smith will most likely have added at least a couple more players to fix the defensive issues which remain his team’s biggest weakness.

With Jack Grealish and Axel Tuanzebe both edging closer to returns, there remains every chance Villa will hit the final stretch in their strongest shape of the season. Staying in touch over the next few weeks is imperative.

If Abraham maintains his electric form, there is every chance they will do so. The 21-year-old needs just one more goal to become the first player to score 20 in a league campaign for Villa since Peter Withe in 1981.

In truth, he should probably have hit the mark on Saturday but was twice denied his hat-trick by Ipswich keeper Bartosz Bialkowski.

The first instance saw the Poland international tip over a brilliantly audacious chip, before he later saved at point blank range when Abraham should perhaps have never given him the opportunity.

It meant that, after taking the acclaim of supporters for his second brace of the month, the striker left the field with an expression which bore more frustration than joy.

Of course, the usual caveats must apply when assessing the statistics. These are goals being scored on a stage less grand than the one upon which either Abraham or Villa would ideally like to be.

That doesn’t mean what he is doing isn’t special. Abraham’s ratio of one goal every 1.2 games is the best of any player in the club’s history, while he has netted in each of the last seven league fixtures at Villa Park, notching 12 in total.

The concern might be that Villa have recently come to rely on him too much.

Since the start of last season, they have typically been a team who have spread the goals around. Yet since Glenn Whelan became the 12th different player to score this term when he scored late on in the 3-0 win at Middlesbrough early last month, Conor Hourihane, Anwar El Ghazi and James Chester are the only players other than Abraham to find the net.

In total, the Chelsea man has been responsible for eight of Villa’s 14 goals over that period, including six of the last seven.

Then again, it is not as though others aren’t trying to help with the load. With a little more luck on Saturday, John McGinn might have been walking away from Villa Park with match ball.

One of the other things supporters have been able to depend on is the Scot submitting an all-action performance. This one was up with his very best, containing everything but the goal.

McGinn flourished in a more advanced, freer role after Smith opted to tweak Villa’s system and utilise both Conor Hourihane and Whelan – the latter of whom enjoyed his best afternoon for some time – in deeper positions.

It meant that Villa, barring the few mad minutes after Sears’s goal, played with far greater control than previous weeks.

Ipswich were dogged but limited and a leveller, had it arrived, wouldn’t really have been deserved on the balance of play.

That didn’t prevent Paul Lambert, on his return to Villa Park, from screaming injustice at what he viewed as two poor decisions by referee Keith Stroud, first in awarding a penalty when Alan Judge was deemed to have fouled McGinn and then denying his team one, after Tommy Elphick appeared to use a hand when blocking Colin Quaner’s goal-bound effort.

In both instances, the Scot had cause for complaint. Yet Villa, on other hand, are hardly a team who have had many of the breaks fall their way of late. Saturday might simply be viewed as an example of luck evening itself out.

All attention now turns to the transfer market and what promises to be a busy few days, with the chief focus on incomings but outgoings also possible. On Saturday, both Birkir Bjarnason and Scott Hogan were left out of the squad entirely and face uncertain futures.

The exit of Yannick Bolasie early last week, following a series of ineffective displays, demonstrated Smith’s ability to be ruthless when required.

Even if the club is successful in bringing in the players he wants, Villa’s head coach knows it is still going to require improvement to stand any chance of breaking into the top six between now and May.

Saturday, for all the late nerves, can only be seen as a step in the right direction for a team which had found itself treading water.

For a week, at least, Villa are winners once more.