Tyrone Mings explains how clear the air talks helped inspire Aston Villa's win at Burnley

The 2-1 New Year’s Day win over the Clarets, which saw Villa climb out of the relegation zone, came just days after a dismal defeat at Watford had ramped up the pressure on head coach Dean Smith and his team.

England international Mings, who made his return from a hamstring injury at Turf Moor, revealed how frank yet open discussions had taken place at Bodymoor Heath in the wake of the weekend’s loss.

“We had a clear the air talk between players and management, just to set absolute basics about what we expect from each other,” he said.

“That had to start at Burnley. I won’t go into too much detail of what was said but the minimum we require from each other is to work hard.

“We knew a big performance was required and every single man, subs included, came on and delivered that.”

Mings returned to the line-up having sat out Villa’s four previous Premier League matches.

He continued: “Obviously it is always frustrating to watch from the sidelines, especially if the team is losing.

“You just want to get out there and see if you can help. Everyone knew how big the game was and how tough it would be.

“Everyone knew our performances recently have not been good enough, even when I was playing. No, I really enjoyed being back out there and I thought we thorough;y deserved the three points.

“We knew exactly what was required. It is a stage of the season where results are massive but judging on what we have delivered recently the performance was arguably bigger than the result.

“It was important because the performance was all in our hands. We could not worry about the result or anything VAR might want to chalk off. We just had to take care of the performance and let our quality has shone through.

“It was a massive win and thoroughly deserved to get us back up the league.”