Aston Villa blogger Matthew Turvey hopes that a return to former club Sunderland will see club-record signing Darren Bent get back to his best.

So, tomorrow sees Darren Bent return to the Stadium of Light for the first time since his move to Aston Villa from Sunderland.

And, after a fairly muted start to the campaign, with a change of tactics that means Bent is expected to work more for the team, their manager Steve Bruce may well be considering now a good time to play us.

Villa, after a slow start to the season, will be looking to bounce back after the loss to West Brom, which put the club in the bottom half of the table for the first time this year.

And bounce back they must, given increasing frustration amongst fans, showing that if ever there was a honeymoon period for the somewhat ill-fated manager, it was over.

Patience is starting to be tested, amongst even the most positive of fans, because taking one point from two home derbies is surely not what was expected.

So on to Sunderland. In order for Villa to begin to win games again -and with only two wins out of nine games they certainly need to start soon – Darren Bent needs to start scoring.

Whether we accept the sales of his past supply lines in Ashley Young, Stewart Downing and Nigel Reo-Coker are to blame, we are where we are.

Bent is not exactly a purchase out of the bargain basement, so it will mean making the most of what is available.

In an ideal world, I have no doubt that Darren would have preferred to keep the players around him that made him score the precious goals that kept us up last season.

But this isn’t an ideal world, so both Bent and Villa need to make do. The question is how is Bent best utilised in this scenario.

Shorn of the dangerous balls that former players used to provide for him, Bent is looking increasingly like a one-trick pony.

When that trick is scoring goals and people do oversee the lack of depth but, when goals dry up, then we are left with something of a conundrum.

Knowing what we know about the need for supply and Bent’s contribution – or lack of – to the team besides goals, there’s a line of thought to say that passengers in the team are not what Villa need.

So do we do the unthinkable and drop our club-record signing? After all, strikers who don’t score aren’t worthy of a team place.

Unless of course you’re Emile Heskey. Who recently appears to have found a new position in midfield. If we do, then the question is who can replace him?

Gabby Agbonlahor seems the most suited to playing as a striker of those available, but his flexibility is clearly utilised elsewhere at present given he has played wide for most of the time since the start of the season.

So if not Gabby, who? Villa are hardly bristling with striking talent and, whilst Nathan Delfouneso and Andreas Weimann are able to play in the role, I have yet to see anything to suggest that they will offer much more.

Maybe it does mean persisting with Bent, while remaining hopeful that he can change his form and do something to win Villa points with his goals.

All of this, of course, shows a fairly sad indictment of what is going on at Villa at present. Rightly or wrongly, the costs at the club are being cut and drastically.

Whilst there’s no doubt that cost cutting is necessary in terms of maintaining solvency, there are arguments to say that they could have been reduced over a longer period of time.

Cut costs, sure, but don’t cut them so drastically that you end up floundering.

After all, you would think our owner Randy Lerner had learned a lesson last year when Villa only saved themselves from the drop two games from the end of the season.

Sure, Villa finished ninth eventually, but this does mask the situation somewhat, given it’s exceedingly rare that two games could yield a climb of that many places.

Whilst Villa didn’t go down, and many Villa fans will argue vehemently that we never were going to go down, but it was a brush with relegation that came too close for comfort.

I thought that encounter might have jolted some of the fan base into reality mode, realising that whatever happened over the next few seasons, it wouldn’t be an easy ride.

It wasn’t likely to be made any easier by selling many of the club’s best players in the close season.

However, I see it is the same old story with expectations of wins, if not demands of them, that often do little besides fuel further anger towards the manager and board.

Sure, we should be going into games like West Brom to win, but we suffer under expectation – we don’t look to win every game, we expect to win many of them.

Expectations are weighing heavily and you can see that across the team. Youngsters are making mistakes like they often do and even senior players like Bent are seeing the pressure being applied.

The question is can boss Alex McLeish do something to keep that pressure off so that Bent can resume normal service or, if not, convince Randy to invest more money in January and make Villa a little more buoyant.

For the manager, a goal for Bent and a win for Villa this weekend could be just what is needed to lift spirits and take some pressure off him and the team.

It could be needed, but many will expect three points to stop them from protesting.

So, Villa, it’s over to you. The fans await your response with eagerness and, rightly or wrongly, expect a win.