A pitiful game, undeserving of another 40,000+ crowd, underlines how far individually and collectively Villa have fallen under Gerrard. But three points is better than one or none. Small crumbs.

Leander Dendoncker makes his debut as a 66’ substitute following his £13.5m arrival from Wolves on transfer deadline day to become the 982nd player to play for Villa in first team League or Cup football.

Ashley Young collects his 40th Booking on his 219th appearance in a Villa shirt (199 Starts) to make it W95 D62 L62, 38 Goals, 64 Assists, 40 Bookings and 2 Red Cards so far in his Villa career.