Analysis: Aston Villa deliver another statement ahead of potentially season-defining run

For the first time since putting seven past Jurgen Klopp’s champions in early October, Dean Smith’s team tasted victory on their own turf, brushing aside their visitors to snap a four-match winless home run.

In doing so, they also recorded back-to-back Premier League wins for the first time since reeling off four on the spin to start the campaign.

Most impressive of all, they did it despite playing more than half of the match a man down. When Tyrone Mings was dismissed just prior to half-time it robbed Villa of their defensive leader and loudest on-field voice.

Without the England international’s constant instruction, how would they cope?

The answer was perfectly well. By full-time the scoreline flattered the 11 men of Palace, not Villa, who were only denied an even larger margin of victory by goalkeeper Vicente Guaita and the post.

This was the latest test of character passed with flying colours by Smith’s men, who have now taken 10 of the last 12 points available and are doing nothing to temper rising excitement and expectation among their supporters.

Just how far can Villa go? Smith, quite sensibly, is continuing to play down their prospects, though his team could hardly have arrived at what has the potential to be a defining period for their campaign in better shape. This evening’s trip to Chelsea is the first of four straight face-offs with fellow contenders, which continues with the New Year’s Day trip to Manchester United and concludes with home matches against Tottenham and Everton.

By the time the latter have left Villa Park on January 16 we will have a much clearer picture of where the host’s season might be heading. The signs, so far, are almost all positive.

Indeed, it feels fair to ask exactly who, aside from perhaps Liverpool, has looked better than Villa over the opening third of the campaign?

Other than a poor second half against Leeds and ropey opening 45 minutes at home to Southampton, the performance levels of Smith’s team have been consistently high. Even the two defeats which preceded the current four-match unbeaten run, against Brighton and West Ham, might be considered somewhat unlucky.

If nothing else, Villa have already done enough to dispel the notion their quick start to the season, when they won their opening four matches of a league campaign the first time since 1930, was in any way a fluke. Not least because their victories are now being engineered by players who had little to no involvement in those early weeks.

First and foremost, Saturday’s win was built on a formidable team showing in which there were no shortage of excellent individual performances to pick out, from the grit of John McGinn and Matt Targett to the guile of Jack Grealish and the relentless running of Ollie Watkins, who was involved in all three goals and did everything but score himself.

It was impossible, however, not to be drawn in by the first-half flair displayed by Bertrand Traore, who fired Villa ahead inside five minutes, hit the post with another shot and set up Grealish for a goalscoring opportunity the skipper really should have taken.

After taking a little time to get acclimatised with his new surroundings, Traore is now starting to show precisely why Villa were prepared to pay Lyon £19million for his services during the last transfer window.

When not attempting to pick holes in the Palace defence, the Burkina Faso international displayed an impressive work-rate to contribute to a defensive performance which saw Villa keep their fourth consecutive clean sheet and their eighth in 13 matches so far.

For the third match running, their defence featured Kortney Hause at its heart. The centre-back’s unfortunate knack of getting injured at key moments has previously hampered attempts to establish himself but this run of performances have been among his most consistent since first joining from Wolves, initially on loan, almost two years ago. With Mings suspended, he will get another chance to impress alongside Ezri Konsa today.

It was Hause’s close range header, after the luckless Watkins had headed against the bar, which gave the 10 men of Villa breathing room midway through the second period. Anwar El Ghazi, another player who suddenly looks reborn, then lashed in his fourth goal in as many matches to put the result beyond any doubt.

El Ghazi, of course, got his chance in part due to the absence of on loan Chelsea ace Ross Barkley, who missed his fifth consecutive match with a hamstring injury and cannot play against his parent club today. The 27-year-old’s return, which is likely to come at Old Trafford, will provide Villa with another attacking dimension.

If there is one criticism of Smith’s team, it is that at times they are not clinical enough. Their points haul from the last four matches really should be a perfect 12 after chances came and went against Burnley, while the defeats to Brighton and West Ham were primarily due to profligacy.

There were times on Saturday, before Hause grabbed the second, when you wondered whether it might cost them again. El Ghazi could only shoot straight at Guaita from close range in the opening half while the Dutch winger also shot wide when well placed. For now the sheer volume of chances being created - another 16 in this match - means it is impossible for an opponent to keep them at bay for 90 minutes.

While the big question is clearly how far they can go, this win also delivered another reminder of how far Villa have already come. Their total of 25 points from 13 matches is the same number they had amassed from 28 games last term, the point at which the season was suspended to provide Smith the time to turn fortunes around.

Back then a run of fixtures akin to the one they now embark on would have been met with an air of trepidation.

Yet no longer. Just at this moment, it is Villa who are the team nobody wants to face.