THERE’S a state of EM-ergency in Aston Villa’s midfield!

Emile Heskey in a central midfield role has raised eyebrows among Villa fans and confusion reigns about what he brings to the position.

But experimenting with Heskey there, albeit ineffectively, suggests a lack of faith in Villa’s specialist central midfield personnel, with some justification.

The centre of the park is among the claret and blues’ areas of concern this season.

When possible, Alex McLeish has packed the middle, hence his favoured 4-2-3-1 formation, with the central member of the attacking three able to drop and help out the holding two, for most matches.

It is as if, in McLeish’s mind, no two-man combination of Villa central midfielders is strong, mobile or good enough to carry the fight to opponents and they often require an extra body for support. He could be right.

Even in the most convincing attacking display so far, the win over Wigan, McLeish filled the centre with a four-man diamond, sacrificing width to bolster the middle.

And, after starting with a traditional 4-4-2 at Sunderland on Saturday, he switched to 4-5-1 after Villa took the lead, moving Heskey into the centre with the intention of further protecting two midfield anchors.

Although, it was not until Heskey, lost in the inside role, returned to the left that Villa functioned again.

Heskey is not the answer in there. But the responses from Villa’s specialist central midfielders are hardly resounding either.

Those clamouring for Stephen Ireland to start are right that he needs games to find his match fitness after last term’s inactivity.

But did he show enough, or any, of the attributes he was signed for – probing, creating, scoring – during his four successive starts against Bolton, QPR, Wigan and Manchester City?

Fabian Delph has just experienced his first concerted Premier League run and also needs time, but by his own admission has not impacted enough on games.

McLeish expects much more from both of them.