Dean Smith’s return to Griffin Park ended in a disappointing 1-0 defeat as Neal Maupay scored the only goal of the game with just three minutes of injury time remaining.
Villa, if we are being honest, were very poor and were only still in the game with just minutes remaining thanks to the defensive efforts of Tyrone Mings, Tommy Elphick, and Lovre Kalinic.
Okay, some will say that Elphick was at fault for the goal because he dived in, and some might say that Maupay got by Mings far too easily, but if it weren’t for them, Maupay would have just been adding the proverbial cherry on top of the cake.
The fact that Brentford had 23 shots on goal to Villa’s 6 just goes to show how dominant the home side were. To be honest, if Villa had walked away with a draw, it would have been an undeserved point.
Villa are still only 7 points away from Bristol City in 6th, so they can obviously mathematically still make the play-offs, but if they continue to play like they are doing at the moment, then there is realistically no chance at all.
Here are our player ratings for tonight’s match against Brentford:
