Analysis: Aston Villa continue to fall short against Premier League's best

Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to Arsenal was their 10th in 12 matches to date against the division’s top eight and though, statistically, it was nowhere near their worst setback, emotionally it was among the most sobering.

For 90 minutes Steven Gerrard’s team huffed and puffed on their own turf without ever landing a serious blow on the Gunners, for whom the one-goal advantage provided by Bukayo Saka’s 30th-minute strike always looked like being sufficient for victory.

Not until the last kick of the match did Villa, who did not touch the ball in the opposing box before Saka broke the deadlock, force visiting keeper Bernd Leno into serious exertion. Even then, the German’s save from Philippe Coutinho’s free-kick fell into regulation category.

A 1-0 defeat against an Arsenal team currently performing better than anyone bar Manchester City and Liverpool could hardly be termed a disgrace, or much of a surprise.

Yet concern came from the sense too many players in the home ranks didn’t believe the outcome could be any different, something Gerrard was quick to pounce on during his post-match debrief.

Villa’s head coach spoke of the collective need for improvement but it will surely not have escaped his attention some of those wilting in the spotlight were recruited at considerable cost, with precisely the intention of making the club more competitive at the top end of the table.

It is not as though Villa went into the match under any serious pressure. But on an occasion which appeared tailor made for the likes of Emi Buendia, Leon Bailey or Bertrand Traore to stamp their mark, they simply failed to answer the bell. Even Coutinho, who had delighted so much with his previous performance in B6 against Southampton a fortnight previously, was largely anonymous until eventually finding some rhythm in the closing stages. Compared to his team-mates, of course, he has far less to prove at the top level.

Gerrard himself cannot escape scrutiny. When a manager suggests players don’t have faith in the system, he must naturally question that system.

Saturday was hardly an isolated incident. Time and again this season, when facing the Premier League’s elite, they have fallen short. While the previous weekend’s defeat at West Ham underlined the gap which exists between them and the top six, this was a reminder of how the gulf to the Champions League contenders is even wider.

Billionaire owners Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens, both of whom watched from the stands, will again provide significant transfer funds this summer but the movement in the market cannot only be inbound. Increasingly it is approaching the point where big questions need to be asked about whether certain players, some of whom were signed relatively recently, are good enough to help the club jump the gap to the serious contenders. To this juncture, too many “difference-makers” are failing to make a difference. Villa remain a team whose bold talk off the pitch is followed by rather mediocre performances on it. In terms of the long-term project, the next transfer window continues to shape up as critical.

Before then there are nine matches left to negotiate, providing further opportunities for players to alter the narrative. Bailey, for one, would argue he has received only limited chances to show what he can do, with Saturday’s 21-minute substitute appearance his longest run out since returning from injury last month.

Buendia, whose arrival from Norwich last summer was seen as evidence Villa might be about to usurp the Gunners, had also been restricted to cameos before being handed his first start in four weeks in place of Danny Ings, in what marked a tactical shift on Gerrard’s part. It didn’t work and while the boss remains insistent Buendia and Coutinho can flourish together, the evidence to this point suggests otherwise. In the five matches the duo have started together, Villa have taken only four points.

If there was a positive on Saturday it came in Villa’s defensive organisation, one area where definite strides have been made under Gerrard. Despite dominating territory in the first half, the visitors did not seriously test Emi Martinez aside from Saka’s goal, the keeper having earlier prevented Ezri Konsa from marking his return to the team with an own goal when he saved low down after the defender has inadvertently deflected a cross toward goal.

For all their struggles in attack and inability to properly control a match, Villa have become a reassuringly stubborn team to break down. After conceding 20 goals in the opening 11 matches of the campaign under Smith, they have now let in the same number in 18 under Gerrard. That includes just five in the last seven though, tellingly when considering their other issues, four of those games have ended in defeat.

Early error aside, confident Konsa was the pick of a backline which also saw a determined performance from Ashley Young. Given the unenviable task of defending the excellent Saka, the veteran did about as well as he could against a player 16 years his junior. In the closing stages Young was one of Villa’s most threatening players at the other end of the pitch.

With a Premier League and Serie A winners medal sitting in his cabinet, Young’s pedigree is not in doubt. The question is whether some of his current team-mates can develop the same mentality.

Villa’s season is far from over. A trip to Molineux immediately after the international break offers a chance to avenge one of the campaign’s lowest points, while a first top half finish in more than a decade is still more than achievable. Yet after Saturday the bigger goals which Gerrard and the club’s hierarchy crave look that much further away.