Gregg Evans of The Athletic provides the expert view ahead of Brentford’s trip to Villa Park.

Aston Villa are 17th in the Premier League going into Sunday’s match, with two wins from their opening 11 games. What have you made of what you’ve seen so far?

It has been a really slow start for them. It has been difficult. The games that they have won and drawn, they have played pretty poorly in.

They have not passed the eyeball test and that is why supporters have been quite frustrated.

They were much better against Chelsea last weekend, but lost the game 2-0.

I would describe them as maybe the most frustrating side in the Premier League right now, because, as I said, when they win and draw they do not play well, but when they lose they play well – with the exception of Thursday’s 3-0 defeat to Fulham - and can’t seem to score.

It has been a bit of a struggle and Villa did not expect it to be just a handful of points above the relegation zone after 11 games.

Steven Gerrard was sacked after 11 months in charge following that loss at Fulham, with Mauricio Pochettino one of the bookies’ favourites to replace him, as the Telegraph reported earlier this week. How much pressure was he under up to that point.

It was always going to be a big week for Gerrard. Villa are going to be looking at a relegation battle if, come Sunday night, they are still flirting with the bottom three.

It is hard to see where they are going to get the points to take them further up the league, which is what they want to do.

The pressure was certainly on Gerrard but he handled the questions that were put to him in the way I would expect him to - he came out fighting.

He said he knew they needed to get wins on the board and that was the only way he was going to relieve the pressure. Unfortunately, he will not get the chance do that now.

Villa are the second-lowest scoring team in the division at the moment with seven goals scored from 128 shots and an expected goals figure of 11.89. What is going wrong in attack, if you can pinpoint anything?

All of the players in the attacking positions are out of form, really.

Ollie Watkins is on his longest goalscoring drought since he joined the club from Brentford and it is just not working for him.

Danny Ings looks like a player whose best years are behind him, Leon Bailey has been injured far too often and Emi Buendía and Philippe Coutinho are both really out of form.

It is just a collection of out-of-form players who are not putting their chances away, as those stats highlight.

Villa are creating chances, but they are not able to find the finishing touch, which surprises me because they have invested a lot of money in those players.

Sometimes when you have got five or six players who are out of form, you have to start asking what the manager is doing to try and get them firing because, ultimately, if there are just too many players that are not performing, it is down to the manager. But I just feel like the player let him down a bit.

Which player should Brentford fans be keeping an eye on on Sunday afternoon?

Bailey came back last Saturday after missing a game, but he was only allowed to play for an hour because of what the medical department advised. In that time, though, he was excellent and I thought he was Villa’s most creative player. Though he has not scored or assisted many goals this season, he looked like he had finally found his spark against Chelsea, so he might be one to keep an eye on.

How is caretaker manager Aaron Danks likely to set up his side at Villa Park?

If he follows Gerrard’s thinking, I think he will stick, pretty much, with four at the back, three in the midfield and then three attacking players – either two No.10s and a striker, or one No.10 and two strikers. I would expect Villa to play the same team they played against Chelsea.

Brentford took four points from the two games last season and have avoided defeat in the previous eight meetings between the teams. What’s your score prediction for this one?

Brentford always seem to beat Villa - they have become a bit of a bogey team!

I’m going to say Villa will, finally, sneak a 1-0 win, despite the fact they have been unable to find the luck they need of late.