Perhaps Steven Gerrard’s week got worse after he was sacked. Aston Villa did a convincing impression of a team who are glad he is gone. They kicked off as the second-lowest scorers in the division, struck three times in 14 minutes and an unknown interim boss went on to equal Gerrard’s biggest win as Villa manager. Liberated from his tactics, his players looked lethal. If the 3-0 thrashing at Fulham that brought his departure was one indictment, a 4-0 walloping of Brentford was another. This was the kind of emphatic, entertaining display they were not delivering under him.
Aaron Danks’s reign began with a repudiation of Gerrard, with the symbolic sacrifice of dropping the out-of-form captain John McGinn, and his narrow system replaced by a 4-2-3-1 with wingers directed to get chalk on their boots. A straitjacket was removed and Villa regained their swagger.
But Gerrard is nevertheless entitled to wonder why some of the destroyers of Brentford did not display such verve for him. Danny Ings scored twice as many league goals in his first 14 minutes without his former teammate as he did in his last 14 games under Gerrard. Leon Bailey had a solitary top-flight strike in almost a year for the Liverpudlian and one after 64 seconds of football following his departure. A rampaging Ollie Watkins doubled his tally for the season. Douglas Luiz, who proved a liability at Craven Cottage on Thursday when his red card seemed a sign of a club in meltdown, made the most of a reprieve after his suspension was overturned. He was outstanding.
Danks, the little-known local and the debutant in the dugout, once worked with the Golden State Warriors basketball team and seemed to show a golden touch as his decisions were justified; as ever in such situations, however, it is a question of whether it was managerial alchemy or simply a case of a change of face, voice and atmosphere effecting a difference.
Whichever, Villa began by preserving his anonymity. There was a blank space on the teamsheet, with Thomas Frank listed as Brentford’s head coach but no Villa counterpart. There was a surfeit of photos in the programme, seemingly hastily replacing Gerrard’s notes. The first mention of his dismissal, rather oddly, came in an interview with Ezri Konsa.
But an era ended, and not just because Villa registered a first win over Brentford since 1947. They scored more goals in their first 65 seconds under Danks than in their last 248 minutes under Gerrard. They only once mustered four in a league game for him and did so three days after his departure.
Perhaps, had he held on to his job for a little longer, Gerrard would have taken advantage of Brentford’s feebleness but Villa rarely surged to victory like this during his tenure. Ruled out then ruled back in again, Luiz started the rout. He supplied the cutback and Bailey the precise finish for the second-minute opener. The Jamaican has three Premier League goals, each for a different Villa manager. If that seems a reason to change coach on a weekly basis, this was a belated sign of what he can do.
He followed his goal with an assist. Ashley Young released Bailey, he picked out Ings and he slotted in. That became a quickfire brace as he converted from the penalty spot after Kristoffer Ajer tugged Tyrone Mings.
Game over, and Brentford could be grateful they only conceded one more. With Villa exuberant and expressive, Luiz almost scored in style from 25 yards. David Raya sought to avert embarrassment for his side and made an extraordinary triple save, denying Watkins, Matty Cash and, first, Luiz. The Brazilian almost brought out his party trick of scoring straight from corners: it took a crucial tip from the goalkeeper to turn a vicious inswinger onto to the bar.
Yet Raya’s second spell of heroics was in vain. He saved twice from Watkins, brilliantly turning a shot onto the post after Bailey’s inviting cross, but the former Brentford forward took his third opportunity. Even though Danks took mercy on Brentford and substituted first Bailey and then Watkins, Villa had 36 per cent of their goals this season in one afternoon.
None of which reflected well on Brentford. There is an erratic feel to their defending; they arrived at Villa Park with consecutive clean sheets and had been defiant against Chelsea. But they had been slipshod in conceding five at Newcastle and this was another away day to forget. If Frank has admirers in the Villa hierarchy, his team set about undermining his case to get the job. He made a double change at the break, trying to alter the course of a match that was long since decided but his side were three goals adrift by that point.
Few come back from 3-0, though Gerrard is proof it is not impossible. But his heyday in Istanbul is 17 years ago now. His past was glorious but, now unemployed as Villa seek to move on without him, his future is cloudier.
