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This article is part of Football FanCast's The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more... 

Aston Villa have struggled to adapt to life in the top-flight so far this season and several of their players’ performances have contributed to that.

The west Midlands club are outside the relegation zone after five matches purely on goal difference alone with just one win to their name.

Defensively, they are one of the top sides in the Premier League having kept two clean sheets which ranks first, tied with six other clubs.

However, it is in attack where their problem lies.

On Monday evening, Villa struggled to secure three points against a ten-man West Ham with Wesley proving focal to their struggles, as Football FanCast mention here.

But the players around him just haven’t been up to scratch either.

Between their three wingers, there has only been one assist and one goal with Anwar El Ghazi registering the highest average rating at 6.62, per WhoScored.

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On the Chalkboard

Villa boss Dean Smith poached Jota from arch-rivals Birmingham City, but he’s yet to show the form he displayed just three miles down the road.

Last season, the Spaniard was vital to the Blues’ season, scoring three goals on top of laying on 11 assists. The majority of which would have contributed to Che Adams’ goal-laden spell in front of goal as he netted 22 in the Championship.

Now at Villa, he has quite clearly regressed in such a short space of time – his average shots per game has gone from 1.6 to a measly 0.4 while a similarly drastic drop is seen with the number of key passes he registered going from 2.1 to just 0.8 this campaign - all per WhoScored.

With the current system clearly not quite working in the Premier League, perhaps it would be wise to test Jota centrally, a position Smith deployed him in on a few occasions when the pair were both at Brentford.

Width is quite clearly an issue, so the 28-year-old’s qualities may be better served in the middle where his awareness and nous would be allowed to thrive closer to the striker.

His assist for Wesley’s first and only goal of the season could provide further proof as to why it would work out as he came inside and then fed a delightful ball into the area.