When you need a win for a bit of a confidence boost and the accompanying three points will keep you in touch with the European places, the best team to play is one who’ve lost their previous four games, even if your record against them this century isn’t that great.

Therefore, despite the horrible cold, Villa approached the visit of Leicester with a fair bit of confidence. This was despite the absence through suspension of Jhon Duran and Morgan Rogers, and the latest longish-term injury in the shape of Pau Torres.

As a result Ross Barkley and Ollie Watkins started the game and Unai was forced to pick the defence that always seems the popular choice. Villa started off well and should have had a penalty when Boubacar Kamara was brought down but the ref seemed to over-rule VAR – yet another bit of inconsistency. With John McGinn going off injured attacking options were lessened although there was at least the welcome sight of Jacob Ramsey returning.

That was about all there was to say about the first half and the second didn’t start off much better. Then Barkley was unmarked twenty yards out and when the ball dropped for him, our cut-price midfielder’s third goal of the season followed seconds later. Once again that should have been the signal for a routine win and once again Villa’s defence failings confounded such expectations.

Ollie Watkins initially gave the ball away but the Leicester player was allowed to carry it unchallenged from the halfway line and although the World’s Number One performed another of his miracles, the rest of the defence were too busy watching the ball to notice the attacker it fell to. Making the goal even worse was that the player setting up the attack was Jordan Ayew, who hadn’t managed so much to run so far with the ball in his fifty-odd games for the Villa combined.

The manager’s substitutions haven’t been too clever lately, but luckily he got them right today. Emiliano Buendia and Ian Maatsen came on to provide more width and within seconds of their arrival it was the latter who won the ball and then delivered the cross for Leon Bailey to put Villa back into the lead.

Bailey could have given Villa a more convincing win but his late shot hit the crossbar and in the resultant defensive scramble Watkins, who seemed off-balance, shot well over.

The final whistle was greeted with relief that not only had Villa got the points, but the crowd could get out of the cold, and on that note, good to see that they’ve stopped being so shy about the attendance. The previous silence might not seem much but it was irritating.