In April, Aston Villa beat Paris Saint-Germain at Villa Park and the eventual European champions called it their hardest tie of the competition. Less than six months later, Villa are in the Premier League’s bottom three and winless.

After Sunday’s 1-1 draw at 10-man Sunderland, Unai Emery accused his players of being lazy and admitted that his Villa team are lacking an identity.

It’s hard to escape the suspicion that a glorious cycle is coming to an end. We analyse six reasons for the unpleasant funk…

Creeping sense of ennui

On the final day of last season, Aston Villa lost 2-0 to a Manchester United side that hadn’t won a league fixture in two-and-a-half months. A draw would have been enough for Champions League football, and as such it created an inescapable sense of missed opportuni

See Full Page