Analysis: Defensive fragility sees Aston Villa lose early ground to Championship pacesetters

Three home Championship games have been decided by three stoppage time goals, the only difference being on Saturday those fans who remained in the ground may have wished they’d for once chosen to try and beat the traffic.

Sam Baldock’s controversial penalty, three minutes into stoppage time, did more than earn Reading a point their performance barely warranted.

It also downgraded Villa’s start to the season from good to merely above average, while leaving manager Steve Bruce with both some familiar and new frustrations.

If last Wednesday’s 2-2 draw with Brentford was proof of his team’s exciting potential then Saturday’s performance, in front of new majority owners Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens, was further evidence of the fragility which also currently exists within the new-look line-up.

For the second time in the space of eight days, Villa opened the scoring but failed to go on an claim the three points, something which happened only twice in the whole of last season.

Back then, of course, John Terry was around to provide a calming presence whenever the pressure was on. It would be reasonable to claim the former skipper’s cool head is currently being missed in a defence which has now been breached five times in the space of just three home games.

Even the most dependable element of Villa’s reworked rearguard appears to be on uncertain ground. The challenge which earned the Royals their late reprieve was surely the most glaring error of judgement James Chester has made in more than 100 games since joining the club two years ago this month. Though the Wales international could count himself more than a little unfortunate, after appearing to clearly win the ball, it was a tackle which didn’t need to be made. Bruce, somewhat surprisingly or refreshingly depending on your viewpoint, reserved most post-match ire for his captain rather than referee Darren England.

So composed when in front last term, Chester’s decision to dive in on Josh Sims was perhaps symptomatic of a Villa back five which is yet to entirely convince. Though it could be argued Saturday’s performance, the skipper's late indiscretion not withstanding, was their best of the campaign to date, it had still needed a brilliant double save from Orjan Nyland to earlier preserve Villa’s lead, following a mistake by Mile Jedinak.

It must be remembered this was only the fourth game the unit has played together. Over time, things should improve. To put it bluntly, they’ll simply have to, for Villa don’t really have too many other options.

The final week of the loan window is likely to see Bruce try and bring in a striker to further bolster his options in attack. There are times, however, when it is questionable whether enough attention in recent weeks has been paid to recruitment at the other end of the pitch.

That said, Baldock’s late spot-kick would have carried far less significance had Villa been able to make the most of their dominance.

The home side created enough chances in the first 20 minutes alone to have been comfortably out of sight. Yet they failed to convert them, due to a combination of poor finishing and a lack of selflessness, which more than once saw players go for glory themselves when team-mates were better placed.

The otherwise excellent John McGinn was the first such culprit inside the opening 30 seconds, the Scot sending a weak shot at Royals keeper Vito Mannone, rather than crossing for an unmarked Jonathan Kodjia.

It was impossible to escape the feeling Villa’s poor decision making was, at times, borne out of over-confidence against opponents who rarely looked threatening until landing the sucker punch right at the death.

That will infuriate Bruce, who knows that while Villa are better placed at this stage than in their previous two Championship campaigns, things could and should have been so much better.

The draw was actually enough to move Villa up one spot in the table to fourth, though the gap between themselves and the top two of Leeds and Middlesbrough now stands at four points, rather than two.

With 41 games to go, it seems silly to focus on the table too much at this stage, if at all. Yet supporters who saw their team play catch-up without success through all of last term will already be anxious not to see the margin expand too much further.

By far the biggest positive on Saturday came in the shape of debutant Anwar El Ghazi. The Netherlands international, who joined last week from Lille on a season-long loan, was tutored at Ajax by Dennis Bergkamp and proceeded to show his game has no shortage of familiar Dutch flair with an eye-catching display.

It was El Ghazi who delivered the cross from which Ahmed Elmohamady broke the deadlock, while he proved a regular menace for Reading before understandably tiring as the game went on.

Yannick Bolasie’s pre-match introduction was a further reminder Villa for now remain a team in transition. The arrival of another winger should, in time, see Elmohamady move back a more familiar position of right-back, a switch which might also help to steady    the defence.

Bruce is likely to rest a host of senior players for tomorrow night’s Carabao Cup tie at Burton, particularly with a trip to Sheffield United looming large next weekend.

Bramall Lane was the setting for one of last season’s most dramatic moments, with Robert Snodgrass snatching victory for Villa at the death.

Now another, this time unwanted late goal, has them heading north needing to restore a little momentum, having failed to make the most of a week which promised so much more.