Analysis: Jack Grealish-inspired Derby demolition puts Aston Villa back in play-off race

Villa certainly did that on Saturday, blasting away Derby County during a barnstorming first-half to ensure their play-off dream remained alive for another week at least.

Inspired by returning hero Jack Grealish, Dean Smith’s team served up the kind of showing which suggested maybe, just maybe, they are capable of the kind of run required to claim a top six finish in May.

No-one is suggesting it does not remain a tall order. A six-point gap, at this stage of the season, is a considerable one, while there is also the small matter of five other teams to overtake.

Yet this was the kind of afternoon, in terms of both the result and performance, which can galvanise a season. At the very least, it should have restored some belief among supporters in their head coach and his methods.

In many respects, this felt similar to the reverse fixture at Pride Park back in November. There too Villa suddenly hit their stride, igniting a campaign unspectacular to that point. For a few weeks after they looked set to take the Championship by storm, before Grealish was struck down with the bone stress injury which kept him sidelined until Saturday.

With their star man finally back, Villa duly picked up where they had left off, transforming in almost the blink of an eye back into the unit which terrorised the likes of the Rams and Middlesbrough during the late autumn.

It must be stressed this was no one-man show. Grealish might have been the conductor and taken the headlines thanks to his wondrous first-time volley, yet his supporting cast was extensive in what was a true team effort.

Conor Hourihane, who scored twice, Tammy Abraham, Glenn Whelan and Kortney Hause in particular had terrific games.

It would be ludicrous, though, not to begin by focusing on Grealish and the impact his return had on a team which had won just two out of 13 league games during his absence.

The pressure on his shoulders, already considerable after a week in which his face was rarely off the front page of Villa’s website, went up a few notches further when Smith decided to bestow the captaincy upon him for the first time.

Grealish, however, has long ceased to be the nervous starlet. Now he is a performer who embraces the spotlight and any notion it might all be too much, or that he had been rushed back too soon, was dispelled the moment he started the move for Hourihane’s ninth-minute opener with a cleverly lofted through ball.

Already before then he was pulling the strings, finding space and creating more with his movement, linking the play and ensuring Villa were always pushing, probing and eventually suffocating the life out of their opponents.

His goal might have been the standout moment, a truly special strike of which few other players in the country, let alone the division, are capable. Yet the game, in truth, had already been won by then.

The manner in which Grealish brings the best out of his team-mates was best summed up by the performance of Hourihane, for whom this was a personal triumph.

Just a fortnight previously, the midfielder had trudged off the pitch with the anger of supporters ringing in his ears having floundered badly in the derby defeat to Albion.

With Grealish back and freeing him of some defensive duties, Hourihane had licence to roam and he looked a player reborn. Both of the Republic of Ireland international’s goals came as a result of getting into advanced positions almost level with striker Abraham.

Factor in Glenn Whelan’s near faultless performance and Smith suddenly has a major midfield headache ahead of Sunday’s Second City derby, for which he has John McGinn back available after serving a two-game ban. It is possible the Scot, surely a shoo-in to be named Villa’s player of the season, might have to make do with a place on the bench at St Andrew’s.

Superb up front, this was also a very good day at the back, where Villa kept only their eighth clean sheet of the season and their first at home since November 2.

The only thing which prevented it from being the perfect afternoon was the serious-looking ankle injury sustained by Tommy Elphick when he stretched to stop a rare loose pass from Tyrone Mings midway through the second half. Elphick, an honest and hard-working player who has had almost zero luck since joining Villa in 2016, was due to undergo a scan yesterday to determine the extent of the damage after leaving the field on a stretcher.

Smith will have confidence in Mings and Hause, both of whom were excellent against the Rams, forming a solid central defensive partnership.

But with Elphick joining James Chester, Axel Tuanzebe and Alan Hutton on the sidelines, it does mean Villa’s defensive options are again somewhat thin.

Derby, it must be said, were very poor and contributed to their own downfall. They do, however, remain seventh and the psychological blow Villa inflicted on one of the teams they must leapfrog should perhaps not be discounted.

Blues, desperate to end a 14-year wait for a league victory over their city rivals, will be confident of putting up a better fight in next Sunday’s high noon showdown.

For Villa, who also face Forest and Boro in the next fortnight, the opportunity is clear.

The chink of light, barely visible a week ago, just got a little brighter. It remains fragile and could quickly be extinguished for good if they are not able to build on Saturday’s excitement. Just for now, though, hope rides again.