The Talking Points from Aston Villa vs Brentford

Yet again the service into Scott Hogan was poor. In the midfield’s defence, a slippery Griffin Park surface made through balls hard, but the link up play as a whole just wasn’t there. On his assist for Onamah, @villareport summed it up perfectly, “Hogan got so pissed off without any service, he became the service”.

Villa are making a habit of this now. Both goals could’ve been prevented . For the first, Whelan should’ve done a lot better than shinning it to a Brentford player. And for the second, why does Josh Onomah think clearing a corner with his arse is a good idea?

For all that went wrong today, some players can come out of the game with  credit. Tommy Elphick is one. The former Bournemouth man wasn’t afraid to put his body on the line, and made a goal saving tackle on Sergi Canos. No more Jedinak at centre-back please Bruce!

Time and time again tonight someone would put in a good cross and no one would be there in the middle to reap the rewards. We must sign an aerially adept striker in January because Keinan Davis can’t play ninety minutes every week, Leonardo Ulloa perhaps?

Every game Villa have played over Christmas has been touted as “the biggest game of the season so far”, but in reality, crunch time is now. Most Villa fans expected at least play-offs at the start of the season, and for the first time in a while we’ve dropped out of the top six. If Villa don’t get back into that bracket in the next three games, the gap could be to big too make up.