Aly Cissokho had another impressive game for Aston Villa against Newcastle (Picture: Getty Images)

Four points and back-to-back clean sheets for the first time in nine months – there’s a sense of cautious optimism among Aston Villa fans after the first two games of the new season.

Entertainment may have been at a premium in both our victory at Stoke last weekend and the goalless draw with Newcastle on Saturday. But Paul Lambert won’t care a jot.

Successful teams are often built from the back and having overhauled his defence over the summer – largely by signing players whose reputations were in need of repairing – the Villa boss will be delighted with two shut-outs.

Against Newcastle, our limitations were still glaringly obvious. At home, we rely far too heavily on a counter-attacking game, don’t get enough runners off the ball and without Christian Benteke look toothless up front.

Yet in spite of those problems, we’ve come through unscathed thanks to our new-found resilience.

There was no lack of commitment, particularly from the excellent full-backs Alan Hutton and Aly Cissokho. Hutton has seized his second chance while the impact Cissokho has made was summed up by the worried reaction of supporters when he went off injured late on.

Ron Vlaar and Philippe Senderos stood up well again in the centre and it will be interesting to see if their partnership will flourish beyond the opening games – or indeed the transfer window.

Our back four may not be aesthetically pleasing but they all enjoy defending. You couldn’t always say that about the likes of Matt Lowton, Leandro Bacuna, Nathan Baker, Ciaran Clark or Joe Bennett.

We shouldn’t, of course, spend all our time defending in home games. No shots on target summed up our ineffectiveness going forward.

Gabby Agbolnlahor is struggling in front of goal at present (Picture: AP)

We’ve begun to address our defensive naivety. Now we must light a spark under our misfiring attack.

There’s such a paucity of ideas in the final third but, until we get Benteke back, the key to generating more scoring chances may actually lie with the defence.

Firstly, when Carlos Sanchez is up to speed with the Premier League (and I can see some sense in Paul Lambert giving him only a cameo role against Newcastle), Fabian Delph will be freed up to join in with the attack, where he looks at his most effective.

Secondly, the inviting deliveries from wide – particularly from Cissokho – just need someone attacking them. If our forward line can be taught to take up intelligent positions, and Delph joins from deep, we will eventually start converting them.

Dissenting voices on the whistle and afterwards on social media were understandable, given how blunt we looked going forward.

But these were matches we’d have lost last season, and we should be relatively happy with the ends, if not the means.

Our defenders will still revert to type on occasions and we will still take beatings. But if we can add a winger or an attacking midfielder with a bit of pace and creativity before the window closes, we’ll look a changed side.

This a team emerging very slowly from its sick bed, baby step by baby step.

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