Analysis: Aston Villa stuck in neutral with no early progress

Trouble is, it wasn’t Villa.

While Crystal Palace oozed confidence and no little class, Steven Gerrard’s team saw their cohesion crumble over the course of 90 minutes.

The visitors could point to some misfortune with the nonsensical award of a penalty just before the hour mark which allowed Wilfried Zaha to put their opponents ahead.

Yet Villa had benefited from a VAR decision only slightly less egregious in the first half and Gerrard, rather sensibly, did not seek to use officiating as an excuse for the defeat.

The season might still be very young but already there is some cause for concern about Villa’s progress. Or, to be more precise, their lack of it. Across three matches, there has been little so far to suggest they are significantly better than the unit which finished a lowly 14th last term and the onus is on Gerrard to engineer improvement sooner rather than later.

Retail therapy would appear to be the immediate solution. Barely had the visiting team bus pulled away from south London before it emerged Villa were in talks with Watford over Ismaila Sarr. Southampton defender Jan Bednarek is another who could well be in the Midlands by the time the transfer deadline passes on Thursday week.

Villa were always going to evaluate their options at this point but for a club who pride themselves on getting business done early and are rarely active late in the window, there is a sense they have left themselves a little more to do than ideally desired.

The serious injury sustained by Diego Carlos, their most expensive summer acquisition, admittedly has not helped. Of the team which started at Selhurst Park, Boubacar Kamara was the only player not on the books last season.

Yet recruitment is only one aspect of building a successful team. It is the responsibility of the manager and the coaching staff to improve players already at their disposal and the longer Villa remain stuck in neutral, the more questions will be asked over whether the biggest problem is personnel or tactics.

“At times,” was Gerrard’s answer when asked, post-match, whether he has seen enough from the current group to suggest they are capable of taking the strides required. That isn’t going to cut it and he knows it. After winning just two of the final 11 matches last season, there was always going to be pressure to make a strong start but so far, albeit with a small sample size, Villa have been rather underwhelming.

The infancy of the campaign means things can quickly change. No firm opinions should be formed after just three matches. That said, there is the nagging sense a manager who toward the end of last term gave the impression of knowing exactly what needed fixing suddenly looks a lot less sure of himself.

There was certainly a feeling Villa needed more input from the touchline against Palace. True, the visitors could count themselves unfortunate with the lack of common sense displayed by VAR John Brooks and on-field referee Andy Madley, in awarding a penalty after Jordan Ayew sent a header onto the arm of Lucas Digne from no more than a yard away. Yet the momentum of the afternoon had already shifted against Villa by that point and only the narrowest of offside calls, which led to Jeffrey Schlupp’s first half goal being chalked off, meant they weren’t already trailing.

The ease with which they were cut open was both alarming and all-too-familiar. After Ollie Watkins had given them the perfect start by opening the scoring inside five minutes, one long ball out of defence was all it needed to send Wilfried Zaha running through to equalise.

Villa had their moments, Emi Buendia shooting straight at Vicente Guaita when well-placed and Leon Bailey curling an effort off the bar, both when the match was level. Palace had more of them and were it not for the reflexes of Emi Martinez and some poor finishing, the final scoreline might have been wider. There never looked a way back for the visitors when Jean-Philippe Mateta made it 3-1 with 19 minutes to go.

The home side were impressive and there is every chance we may eventually look back and realise Villa simply ran into one of the season’s surprise packages early in the piece.

There is plenty of time to put things right. The difficulty is the fixture list now, on paper, gets markedly tougher with West Ham, Arsenal and Manchester City – three teams Villa failed to take any points off last season – coming up after tomorrow’s Carabao Cup trip to Bolton. After Saturday, the line-up for the latter may well be a little stronger than originally intended.