Analysis: Pressure increases on Steven Gerrard despite improved Aston Villa display

The trouble for the manager, after Sunday’s defeat to Chelsea, is time may be running out for them to deliver it and keep him in post.

One suspects it will need to come at Fulham on Thursday night or, if not there, certainly at home to Brentford next week.

Booed at the final whistle for the second time in the space of a week, Gerrard knows Villa Park is becoming an increasingly restless place and reversing the mood will not be easy. Some supporters in the Holte End joined in with chants from Chelsea supporters, informing the home manager he would be “sacked in the morning”. Goodwill is thin on the ground.

The positive for Gerrard is Villa head to Craven Cottage on the back of comfortably their best attacking performance of the campaign, even though it failed to produce a result or even a goal.

This was one of those days you wonder why anyone would ever choose to be a football manager? Having been criticised for his tactics and seen his team ridiculed in some quarters for their joyless approach in last Monday’s 1-1 draw at Nottingham Forest, Gerrard changed it up, got his selection right and watched his men dominate for long periods of the afternoon, only to still end up on the losing side thanks to a combination of big individual errors, poor finishing and the best performance of Kepa Arrizabalaga’s Chelsea career.

The Spanish goalkeeper made six saves, including incredible stops to deny Jacob Ramsey and Danny Ings, during a first half when Villa delivered everything but the goal.

Gerrard was right later when claiming his team will quickly climb the table if they can consistently reproduce the display of yesterday’s opening hour.

The counter argument, of course, is to ask why it has taken this long for them to produce it? Performances like these are not the reason Gerrard finds himself under so much pressure. Instead, it is the collective body of work, amassed during nearly a year in charge that is the problem, most notably a record of just four wins in 21 matches stretching back to March and a return of nine points from the first 10 games of this season, which has them sat just a point and two places above the bottom three.

At least there is hope Gerrard may have hit on the right formula up front, even though it is notable and problematic Villa’s best two showings of the season, yesterday and last month’s 1-1 draw with Manchester City, have come in matches neither Emi Buendia or Philippe Coutinho have started.

After pairing the two playmakers together at Forest with no reward, Gerrard relegated them to the bench in favour of Leon Bailey and it proved shrewd as the winger, unavailable at the City Ground due to a muscle injury, produced probably his best all-round display in a Villa shirt before being withdrawn on the advice of the club’s medical staff with 24 minutes to go.

With Ollie Watkins also pushed wide and Danny Ings recalled to play through the middle, Villa had pace and width and caused their visitors endless trouble down the flanks, helped too by Graham Potter’s brave (and quickly corrected) decision to play Raheem Sterling as a right wing-back.

The shame was they were already starting from a goal down after Tyrone Mings gifted Chelsea the lead with a calamitous sixth-minute error. Impressive through the opening two months of the season, this has been a tough week for the centre-back, who was caught napping for the goal conceded at Forest and then, in front of watching England boss Gareth Southgate, suffered major embarrassment here. Under no pressure, he mistimed his jump and sent a clearing header back towards his own goal, the lurking Mason Mount arriving to accept the delivery and volley home.

Villa rallied impressively but found Kepa in inspired form. John McGinn might have sent his shot too close to the keeper but the follow-up save from Ramsey was truly special, the Chelsea man then saving a further effort from an offside Ings just for good measure. Ings was certainly onside soon after when he dove in to meet Bailey’s cross but somehow Kepa, falling backwards, pushed the ball over the bar from point-blank range.

It wasn’t all goalkeeping heroics. Villa were also guilty of missing the target, with Bailey heading against the bar and Watkins failing to react in time to control the former’s deep cross when left unmarked at the far post. The striker’s lack of composure in the box is becoming an increasing concern yet his harrying and running were key to Villa’s performance and Gerrard must surely keep faith.

The onus is also on the manager to remain bold. Villa disrupted Chelsea by committing numbers to their attack, while also limiting the visitors to relatively little in the way of chances. Though Sterling did strike the bar late in the first half, Chelsea had rarely threatened in the second period before Mings was adjudged to have fouled Mount and the latter sent a curling, dipping free-kick beyond a fooled Emi Martinez.

Gerrard looked on in disbelief. This was a day fortune appeared to desert his team but the manager knows excuses wear thin. The bigger picture is the problem and that must change soon.