Analysis: Steven Gerrard's Aston Villa press the reset button to claim much-needed victory

That would be one way of assessing Villa’s win at Brighton on Saturday. Under mounting scrutiny after back-to-back defeats to Newcastle and Watford, Steven Gerrard’s team got their season back on track by returning to the clinical, disciplined, no-frills approach which underpinned much of their early success under the head coach.

It couldn’t be described as perfect and neither was it particularly pretty, yet it was effective and the victory it helped deliver valuable in lowering the heat and ensuring Villa’s sights are focused on what is happening above them in the Premier League table, rather than the increasingly fraught battle below.

Prior to the weekend, Gerrard had described winning as as the ‘medicine’ his faltering team required and in terms of easing some of his their most pressing ailments, this was precisely what the doctor ordered.

One result was never going to be enough to cure all of Villa’s ills but after a fortnight in which players had seen their mentality questioned and the head coach admit, quite openly, how some members of his squad are likely playing for their futures, Saturday was an encouraging and necessary response.

Gerrard later explained how the previous week had offered the chance to press the ‘reset button’ with a renewed focus on his team’s strengths. Perhaps it was no surprise, in that respect, how the performance bore some familiar hallmarks to November’s victory over the same opponents in what was his first game in charge.

A Villa team who had recently become too easy to score against made sure, first and foremost, they were not going to gift the game to the hosts. After an admittedly shaky first 15 minutes, triggered perhaps by their late arrival which delayed kick-off at the Amex by half-an-hour, they rarely looked threatened on route to their first clean sheet in four matches. It was their seventh shutout of the campaign in total and every one of those has also delivered a win. Only twice this season have they conceded and emerged victorious by the final whistle.

More solid at the back, Villa also rediscovered the ruthless streak lacking during their downturn. A unit which had tested Watford goalkeeper Ben Foster with only one of its 20 attempts on goal the previous weekend did far better here, with four out of nine on target.

That included both goals. Matty Cash opening the scoring and settling early nerves with a powerful 17th minute drive which pinged off the base of the post and in, before Ollie Watkins made the points safe with an impressively taken effort midway through the second half.

For Watkins, this felt like a significant day. The striker’s form had been the subject of much scrutiny and the previous weekend had seen him dropped for the first time since joining Villa in a then club record £33million deal 17 months ago.

But the 26-year-old is made of strong stuff and handed a swift recall on the south coast, he delivered a reminder of his qualities, outpacing defender Joel Veltman and bringing Tyrone Mings’ long pass under control with his right foot before firing a finish beyond keeper Rob Sanchez and into the bottom corner with his left. In that moment, he did not look like a player who had not scored for more than two months.

The goal was Watkins’ 20th in the Premier League for Villa and for all his recent struggles, it should not be overlooked that Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy are the only English strikers to have netted more over the last two seasons.

Saturday’s goal was only the fourth time this term either Watkins or Danny Ings have found the target when both have started, after Gerrard opted to pair them together as a traditional strike partnership in a notable tactical shift away from his preference of fielding two playmakers.

For Ings this was in some respects a frustrating afternoon as the big chance never fell his way. Yet he played his part in the win with his harrying of the Brighton backline as Villa defended from the front. Though the on-field chemistry with Watkins remains limited, the duo are believed to have a solid relationship off the pitch and Ings’ reaction to seeing his strike partner score was to lift him off the ground. The potential upside for Villa if they can forge a playing partnership is so considerable it is no surprise Gerrard is determined to persevere.

The flip side to that is what it might mean for some of the club’s other attacking players. Though Gerrard stressed afterward the need to remain adaptable, this was a win achieved with two of last summer’s big signings, Emi Buendia and Leon Bailey, sat on the bench – Philippe Coutinho having been preferred in the role behind the front two, with full-backs Cash and Lucas Digne once again charged with providing the team’s width.

Whether Villa have the personnel to sacrifice a midfielder for another attacking outlet is questionable and much as this performance has pleasing aspects, it was also a reminder Gerrard is still working to strike the perfect balance in his side.

Wrangling with such quandaries is always better after a win and there is no doubt everyone at Villa is breathing a bit easier after a win which extended the cushion over the bottom three to nine points. The gap to the top half, meanwhile, stands at just three and erasing it between now and May is once again the primary objective.