A second string Aston Villa side impressed today, despite losing against Sky Bet Championship title winners Norwich City, who received the trophy at Villa Park after the game. 

We’ve picked five key things, or five things we may have learned from the game which saw the away side pick up a late winner.

Likely Hutton Farewell

Alan Hutton captained the side this afternoon, making what is likely to be his last ever appearance at Aston Villa, never mind at Villa Park. 

Ahmed Elmohamady was dropped to the bench amongst a number of other key players including Anwar El Ghazi, so the Scotsman picked up the mantle at right back. 

His performance wasn’t overly great, and he was at fault for the first goal, and Norwich seemed to target the right-hand side throughout the game as they knew Hutton would struggle with an overload. 

Best Midfield in the League

You can’t deny it. 

The likes of John McGinn and Jack Grealish were rested to avoid either of them picking up an injury or disciplinary action that could see them miss the Play-Offs, but the midfield three of Henri Lansbury, Conor Hourihane and Glenn Whelan certainly impressed despite the loss.

The amount of talent in just the central areas alone is outstanding, and when you take into account the wing talents too, it’s hard to argue that we don’t have the best midfield selection in the entire Sky Bet Championship.

Kodjia’s Found His Form

Jonathan Kodjia hasn’t had the easiest of seasons after losing his place to the prolific Tammy Abraham, and has played such a bit part that he was linked with an exit in January. 

But he’s had his part to play in some key goals and key games, and seems to have found his goal-scoring form at the perfect time – netting three in his last four appearances. His goal today required some serious technique too. 

Having Kodjia as an option at the very least from the bench is perfect. He’ll be fired up for the play-offs too considering the lack of impact he could have on last season through injury. 

Kortney Missed Mings

Kortney Hause had a good game considering it was his first in a while after returning from injury and it took him a little while to knock the rust off. 

He made a mistake within the opening few minutes that could have seen Norwich take the lead early on, and looked a little nervy towards the end of the game. 

Him and Axel Tuanzebe had a fine partnership at the back, but it was evident that Kortney and Tuanzebe would have been more comfortable if their respective partners were Mings instead.

Gulf? What Gulf?

Aston Villa played a side where their main threats and main men were missing and controlled large swathes of the game against Norwich who went up as Champions today. 

There was really, no difference in the levels of the two teams, and the home fans made sure that Norwich knew this.

Had Aston Villa fielded a full strength side, they’d have likely picked up all three points. Not that it would have changed anything, though.