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Aston Villa’s alarming goal shortage can be wrapped up with one worrying statistic.

“Every team in the top 4 divisions has scored at least twice as many goals as #avfc - except for Burnley and QPR.”

That was today’s latest reminder on Twitter that Villa have been incredibly quiet in front of goal this season.

Relegation-threatened Burnley have managed just four goals this term - the same tally as the claret and blues - while basement boys QPR have bagged six.

Apart from that every other team has enjoyed double the amount of joy in front of goal.

There’s no doubt that goals win matches, but Villa would not want to swap their league position with any team below them on a lower points tally but higher goals scored column.

They wouldn’t fancy swapping their fixture list with any other team either having just come through a gruelling spell themselves.

On the face of it four goals in eight games is as close to unacceptable as it gets.

Who are ya? Aston Villa fans

If the goalscoring drought continues then serious questions will be asked.

But this is not the time to hammer and slate the team.

They’ve just played last season’s top-five in successive weeks and defeats against the big-boys are to be expected more often than not.

On top of that Villa’s top two No.9’s have missed the start to this season through injury.

When Christian Benteke re-gains his match sharpness, goals will inevitably follow.

Despite it being so early in the campaign the pressure is mounting on Monday’s trip to Loftus Road.

A dismal performance similar to that against Everton will not be tolerated.

Villa will also be keen to avoid breaking another unwanted record.

After some number-crunching of my own this week I mentioned that they have never gone five Premier League games on the spin without scoring.

The Opta boys will be busy should they fail to score against QPR.