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On a Monday night, in front of a packed and rowdy Villa Park, the Aston Villa picked up a point to move out of the bottom three.

This point was earned against an established top flight team, who came into the game off the back of two comfortable victories and looking to go third in the table. All doom and gloom? You’d think not.

But listening to the grumbles of the home faithful, coupled with going down the wholly ill-advised route of browsing social media forums, you would be forgiven for thinking that last night under the lights had been an unbridled disaster for the club.

In the first half, Villa didn’t keep possession particularly well, allowing the lion’s share of the ball to the men from East London. In terms of chances created though, they barely laid a glove on us.

Villa showed good shape and defensive resolve, restricting West Ham to very little in front of goal. Even the most critical of striking coaches would struggle to describe Haller’s near-post header as more than a half-chance, and in truth, the away side created very little else.

Villa were passing quite sharply, but on several occasions seemed to try to overplay in the middle of the park, giving the ball away and inviting more pressure, which in truth, never fully materialised.

Marvelous Nakamba, making his full debut, certainly grew into the game, but was sloppy with a few passes early on. A holding midfielder giving the ball away in the middle of the park is always going to cause a few moments of panic, but the wonderfully developing defensive partnership of Mings and Engels mopped up any such moments without too many problems.

Grealish and McGinn worked tirelessly too, not allowing themselves to use a holding player behind them as an excuse to focus solely on attack. Both midfielders tracked runners, made tackles and threw themselves in front of the ball when necessary, and credit should go to them for their professional performances.

Going back to those dreaded social media platforms, it seems that Villa’s captain came in for a large (and in my opinion, unjustified) amount of criticism. For me – perhaps aside from the centre halves - Jack was comfortably Villa’s best player on the night.

As well as working back to win the ball, he was the starting point of every attack, as he so often is; driving Villa forward through the centre, before finding a forward pass or drawing the foul. He created chances, most notably a whipped cross on to the head of Wesley, which could easily have broken the deadlock.

As an attacking force, Villa’s problem seems to be the shape, and it will be a tough job for Dean Smith to figure out how to fix.

Jota, as classy as he looks on the ball, is a left-footed right-winger with no pace. Any sufficient defensive unit can work out how to cope with his threat, which primarily consists of him cutting inside and looking for a well-weighted through-ball. See Wesley vs Everton for further details.

El Ghazi, as much as he has an eye for goal and the ability to beat a man, is yet to pull up any trees in the top flight. The Dutch winger gives his all though and is a fan favourite, although Trezeguet has arguably looked the more threatening creator so far this season.

Moving up front, we look at Wesley. The much-maligned Brazilian. Why oh why our fans always insist on having a scapegoat to serve as their primary outlet for criticism whenever anything goes wrong is beyond me. This is a man who was written off by many just two games into his Premier League career. Before a fantastic centre forward’s performance against Everton caused the scapegoaters to briefly eat their words. But now they’re back. Suddenly, once again he’s a waste of money, not good enough for the Premier League.

Mostly because he missed Villa’s best chance to win the game. The jaw-dragging scapegoaters are seemingly incapable of noticing the big man’s work-rate and hold-up play, which were both excellent.

He’s isolated at times, and he’s not getting many chances in front of goal. But to make him the scapegoat helps nobody and is frankly undeserved.

So, what was it about Grealish’s performance that drew so much criticism? He gives the ball away. Jack is always looking for the killer pass when he reaches the final third. That is his job. Again, it comes back to Villa’s attacking shape making it difficult to cut through a defence, but Jack will be brave and look to pick up the mantle for his men. So yes, at times he will struggle to find the pass that he goes for. He could take the safe option, but this would nullify Villa’s cutting edge even further.

This is not to say that Grealish cannot improve. He needs to find another gear to truly elevate him to the level most Villa fans believe him to be capable of. He can add a finishing touch, improve on his goal scoring ratio, and at times, be more clinical with his final ball. He was in two minds when he mis-controlled the ball in the box late on, meaning a great chance went begging. For him the break into the England squad and stay there, there is work to be done. But make no mistake, he is Villa’s best attacking player, starting almost every move, driving effortlessly forward through the centre of the park and putting us on the front foot.

In truth, the home side didn’t cope well when the Hammers went down to ten men. Rather than grabbing the game by the scruff of the neck, controlling possession and starting to pick holes in the opposition defence, the game somehow became stretched, with Villa not knowing how best to make their numerical advantage pay.

But this was not a disastrous point. That is now back-to-back clean sheets at Villa Park, against sides that most would believe have semi-realistic desires of finishing inside the top six.

There is plenty to improve upon, but a solid defence is a great starting point, and it’s clear that we have players capable of causing damage at the other end of the field.

So, stop the scapegoating. Stop the over-simplified, ludicrously dramatic criticisms, that serve zero purpose other than deflating the players and getting right on my wick. Get behind the team and keep the faith that Dean Smith can find the right shape and recipe to gain a little more cutting edge and turn us into a decent, mid-table side.

We are really not that far away.

@jayhay84