John McGinn’s relieved to have found his Aston Villa form

The Villa skipper has been much improved in recent weeks, having found himself out of the starting XI when Emery first arrived.

And the Scot is hoping to recover from a hamstring problem in time to face Wolves on Wednesday.

He said: “The challenge is to try and get yourself back in (the team). You can cry about it or get your head down and do what you do best. Every time I play for Villa I give 100 per cent and whether that is centre mid, up front or right wing I will do what the manager asks. Thankfully I am coming on to some better form.”

The recent run has seen Villa pull eight points clear of the relegation zone and within striking distance of the top half, but McGinn warned: “We are (looking up) but we also need to be careful we don’t get carried away. It wasn’t that long ago we were only a few positions off the bottom. If we’d lost on Sunday we would still be in that little pack.

“We need to stay humble, stay focused. Yes, we can look ahead and dream a little bit but we also need to be careful.”

Meanwhile, Southampton boss Nathan Jones has not ruled out a return to St Mary’s for Jan Bednarek.

The Poland centre-back is on a season-long loan at Villa but has started just one Premier League match this term. Jones needs to bolster his defence having watched his rock-bottom side slip to two defeats in his two matches in charge so far.

He said: “There’s certain positions that we want to strengthen in because we need help and competition in those positions.

“That (defence) is one position where we would like to strengthen, but I’m not going say names or anything now because there’s a lot going on and it wont be a super-busy January. But we would like to make sure that the squad we go into January with and the one we come out of it with will be stronger and better.”

Liverpool’s poor defending cost them dearly as Brentford claimed another famous scalp with a 3-1 victory.

An Ibrahima Konate own goal and Yoane Wissa’s header put the Bees in control, prompting angry Reds boss Jurgen Klopp to substitute key defender Virgil van Dijk at half-time. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain pulled one back but Bryan Mbeumo killed the Reds off as they lost more ground in the race for a top-four Premier League finish.