Analysis: Aston Villa's cup disappointment still brings renewed hope

Defeat on highly-charged, emotional occasions like Sunday’s Carabao Cup final are not the kind which can be easily shrugged off. There is no other place where the difference between victory and defeat feels quite so vast.

But while Villa ultimately found themselves on the wrong end of the result against Manchester City and were unable to end the club’s major trophy drought, which is destined to extend into a 25th year, the outcome was at least one which will provide Villa boss Dean Smith with renewed hope for the Premier League relegation battle which is now the sole focus of their campaign.

Yesterday’s match came barely a week after Smith had publicly lambasted his players after a dismal 2-0 defeat at Southampton which further heightened fears of an immediate return to the Championship.

Those who watched both matches might wonder how so many of the players beaten with barely a whimper on the south coast, could then submit such a spirited performance against the reigning Premier League champions, an opponent - it should not be forgotten - who had trounced them 6-1 just 49 days previously.

Finding a solution to the maddening inconsistencies which still plague his team will surely be key to Smith engineering a route out of the bottom three between now and May.

That is where Villa now find themselves after a weekend where results elsewhere, unlike in previous weekends, did not go kindly.

West Ham’s win over Southampton and Watford’s shock dismantling of champions-elect Liverpool means Villa now sit one spot off the bottom of the table.

When Norwich, the only club still below them, defeated Leicester on Friday night it was the first time a member of the bottom six had beat a team above those positions since New Year’s Day. The weekend served as a reminder, not that it was ever really needed, Villa cannot rely on the failings of others to secure their top flight status.

The immeasurable spirit they showed at Wembley, particularly in the second half, is now the minimum requirement over the final 11 matches which will decide their fate, starting with the trip to Leicester next Monday night.

Villa could not claim this was a day when nothing went for them. There were enough last-ditch blocks and near misses in the second half to leave City wondering just how they were yet to kill the match off.

But while Pep Guardiola’s team were on the balance of the 90 minutes deserved winners, in the moments it really mattered the luck did fall their way.

Sergio Aguero’s 20th minute shot hit the boot of Tyrone Mings to give Villa goalkeeper Orjan Nyland no chance of saving it.

Then, with 87 minutes on the clock, Claudio Bravo pushed Bjorn Engels’ header onto the post and with 33,000 Villa supporters baying for the ball to fall to one of their players in a crowded penalty box, instead it fell to City man and the chance and in reality the match was gone.

There was also no getting away from the controversy surrounding the goal which proved to be City’s winner.

Not for the first time this season, a match involving Villa highlighted the shortcomings surrounding VAR and its implementation. In truth, to the naked eye it was already clear the ball had come off Ilkay Gundogan last after Jack Grealish had dived in to block the midfielder’s cross.

But once the assistant had made the mistake of awarding the corner, there was no way under the current legislation for the VAR to overturn it, despite the fact that the decision would have taken barely a couple of seconds.

It begs the obvious question of the point of using video technology if it is not able to overturn such a clear and obvious - and ultimately costly - officiating mistake.

Smith, who has not been shy of criticising VAR in the past, turned down the opportunity to do so again in the aftermath, instead admitting his team should have done a better job of defending the set piece.

That was a regular issue for Villa over the 90 minutes but there were also some positives in the head coach’s decision to switch to a four-man backline.

The performance of Engels was one of them. Had the Belgian’s late header beaten Bravo to level the scores at 2-2 it would have marked a fitting redemption just a fortnight on from his late error which cost Villa a point in the Premier League against Tottenham.

Alongside the similarly towering Tyrone Mings, Engels threw himself of everything during the second half as Villa, at times, rode wave after wave of City attack.

Ahead of them Marvelous Nakamba was similarly strong in the tackle. There is perhaps no player who better summed up Villa’s transformation from the loss at Southampton than the Zimbabwe international. Missing in action at St Mary’s, he was right in the thick of it at Wembley.

The biggest disappointment for Villa was the performance of Grealish. A player who typically thrives on the big stage just could not produce the magic his team required, though in his defence the skipper appeared to pick up a knock late in the first-half and was visibly struggling, unable to track back, by the end.

Instead Villa’s big moment belonged to Mbwana Samatta. The Tanzania international had, in truth, struggled to make much of an impact before it arrived in the 41st minute.

John Stones slipped while trying to deal with a long ball, allowing Anwar El Ghazi to pounce and deliver a cross which Samatta, diving forward, powered beyond Bravo.

Villa’s supporters, who had become frustrated as City had started to assume control, were suddenly alive again and from then until the final whistle they roared their team on relentlessly.

Such support will be needed again in the weeks ahead. Villa might have missed out on a first major trophy since 1996 but the biggest matches of their season are yet to come.