Harewood is now seen as merely a possibility to enter the field of play when there is no-one else to turn to – despite the elevation of youngster Nathan Delfouneso – and your team is crying out for a goal.

You know you’re in trouble when the highlights package on television opens with a mis-hit shot from Simon Davies that ballooned miserably wide from Andrew Johnson’s knock-down.

It had to be repeated in slow motion to help fill the allotted Match of the Day time slot.

So why were Villa so average? It was nothing to do with systems.

And it had nothing to do with Fulham playing for a point and battening down the hatches.

Villa had been predominantly 4-5-1 against both Arsenal and Manchester United.

Here, and mostly on the front foot, they had Ashley Young and James Milner operating almost on a level with Gabby Agbonlahor.

Fulham boss Roy Hodgson had clearly not done his homework as Young was left in so much space that at times he would have looked like the lone kid on a playground who won’t join in with the rest.

Perhaps Hodgson was worried that unless Clint Dempsey didn’t participate in the central midfield battle when Villa had the ball, then Danny Murphy and Jimmy Bullard would be over-run by Messrs Barry, Sidwell and Petrov.

Villa were completely dominant around the mid-point of the first half but they were only able to fashion three clear openings.

At the heart of it all was Young who fired into the side-netting after receiving the ball of the match from Stiliyan Petrov.

Next it was Young’s turn to deliver a right-footed ball to Gareth Barry on the far post with the precision of a mechanical engineer.

Barry, sensing his 50th career goal for Villa, rose above Paul Konchesky but saw his header fly agonisingly wide of the upright.

Then it was Steve Sidwell’s turn to look a gift horse in the mouth.