Aston Villa are on an ambitious path but Leeds draw shows just how far they have to go

Villa aspire to return to European football but are at risk of sticking in the Premier League's midtable quicksand

BIRMINGHAM -- It has been hard to fault Aston Villa's ambition since they returned to the Premier League in the summer of 2019. It is a stage on which the biggest club in the United Kingdom's second city belong and they have acted like they know that.

Owners Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens are said to covet European football soon, and Champions League in the future. They have spent a sizeable amount to move Villa in that direction. A net spend over the period in excess of $300 million has given Steven Gerrard a squad that is well established in the Premier League's middle classes. It is one that has an increasingly cosmopolitan feel to it, encompassing Argentina's No.1 goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez, the widely-coveted Emiliano Buendia and of course January arrival Philippe Coutinho.

His first full start at Villa Park offered a dizzying insight into what the Barcelona loanee can bring to this club and the teammates around him. Here was a player who in years gone by might be enough on his own to propel a side up the Premier League table.