Villa are once again straining and creaking in their efforts to deliver on a season packed with so much promise.

A second successive home draw against lower-placed opposition this time came without the boos which at least will have relieved prickly manager Martin O’Neill. But the sense of a missed opportunity was apparent.

While the new labours of O’Neill’s men on Budget Day failed to overcome an obdurate Sunderland, key rivals Manchester City were caving in to Everton, a collapse which went largely unpunished.

More worrying were the clear signs of fatigue and stress on the bodies and in the minds of O’Neill’s hard-core group of first teamers.

Emile Heskey lasted 10 minutes before limping out of the game with a foot injury and James Milner, ignoring a sore Achilles to play, also finished the night in the treatment room.

Poor decision-making and concentration lapses, the sign of tired minds, were also a feature of Villa’s play over the final phase of a game for which  defender Richard Dunne, another player nursing an Achilles problem, volunteered for action, too.

The support squad remain all dressed up but without a game to go to. This heavy reliance on a comparatively small group of players is surely beginning to tell.

Villa were arguably even better in the opening phases against Sunderland than they had been four days earlier against Wolves, even if they conceded a lead to Frazier Campbell before the in-form John Carew wiped it out.

But they tired badly after the break, struggling to find the tempo and momentum to establish a sufficient body of pressure to crack Steve Bruce’s resurgent Black Cats.

Milner particularly is finding it tough going at the moment, while Ashley Young and Stewart Downing were unable to sustain their influences in the early phases – key figures Villa need at their freshest to function at their best.

O’Neill will ask his men to go through the stamina barriers one more time, at Chelsea on Saturday, before a free week finally gives aching limbs and sore ankles a reprieve.

But there can’t be a Villa fan out there who isn’t now worried about the campaign coming up short for the same squad-related reasons as last year.

That would be such a pity because when they are in full cry, as they were for the opening half-hour against Sunderland, Villa are an exciting outfit worthy of their high Premier League placing.

Sunderland arrived recovering from their own stresses of a deep mid-winter malaise, a recovery in which goalkeeper Craig Gordon has been as important a figure as striker Darren Bent.

In Villa’s exhilarating start, we saw why as the Scotland international keeper made a flurry of instinctive saves, defying Carew, Ashley Young and, most impressively of all, James Collins, whose free header from a super Downing corner Gordon somehow reached.

For some time, but most vocally in the previous game against Wolves, Villa fans have been baying for another glimpse of young forward Nathan Delfouneso although they would not have wanted it to come at the expense of a limping Heskey retiring to the dressing room before the quarter hour-mark arrived.

But with Gabby Agbonlahor still missing, Delfouneso was granted his biggest prime-time Premier League opportunity so far.

In truth, it was a sobering experience for the youngster who found tackling tough, seasoned top-flight defenders in the thick of the game a little different to a run-out against a tiring defence late on.

That is not to say there isn’t clear talent and promise in his game and with another pacey outlet arriving to stretch Sunderland’s defence, it was something of a shock when in the midst of all this Villa attacking energy the visitors took a 23rd-minute lead.

There could be no qualms about it either. A super pass from Kieran Richardson split Dunne and Collins down the middle and gave Campbell the chance to run on and coolly lift his finish over Brad Friedel.

But Villa found a worthy response with an equaliser from a flowing move on the half-hour, which began with a clever Milner step-over in midfield which saw the ball worked fluidly out to Young, whose cross to the back post Carew side-footed home.

Even Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger would have doffed his cap to that one.

It was quick, incisive attacking football which is the trademark of this team who in Young had the game’s most compelling figure.

The winger  may well be locked in a conflict about how to deliver this kind of form for his country but you can only imagine Wayne Rooney’s eyes lighting up at the quality of crosses the Villa star is once more swerving across the face of disconcerted defenders. Young simply has to be worth a final chance before Fabio Capello makes his selection for the World Cup.

But Villa possibly peaked at this point. Not only did Sunderland close out the first half with Campbell squandering a chance to restore the lead after embarrassing Dunne, they opened the second one with John Mensah missing a glaring back-post header as Villa’s offside trap broke down at set piece.

Carew would have two more opportunities. Played in by Milner, the big Norwegian was denied by another wonderful Gordon save attempting one of those Henry-style finishes, right-footed from the left-hand side, across the face of the goalkeeper.

But he could not believe that he headed over from point-blank range when a Downing corner then swerved into him, before the game’s closing seconds were marked by O’Neill hopping about in anguish, as Delfouneso failed to get a good opportunity from a Stephen Warnock on target.