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.
