With his previous employment history, Steve Bruce is never going to earn a warm place in the hearts of Aston Villa fans.

This was the man, remember (actually, who could ever and will ever, forget?) who scored an infamous 97th-minute winner for Manchester United at Sheffield Wednesday, a goal which more or less ended the title hopes of Ron Atkinson's Villa the best part of two decades ago.

And a man who, during his time as boss of Birmingham City, presided over a sequence of six unbeaten derby matches, winning four and drawing two: unbeaten in games against Villa for three seasons running.

We are in those twilight days between autumn and winter, and a murky gloom threatens to descend upon all things Villa.

Saturday's home defeat to West Brom - Villa's first reversal against their nearish neighbours since 1979 - simply reinforced the shortcomings of the current squad and manager, and emphasized Villa's fall in stature and standing.

I can’t contain myself a moment longer. I accept I’ll almost certainly be opening a huge can of worms with this one, but having read and digested Alex McLeish’s recent comments about Emile Heskey, and pondered them for the best part of a week, I’ve got to let it all it out.

I need to talk about Emile. Perhaps we all do. I think we’d all feel better afterwards.

So, Emile Heskey. Where to start? How about those thoughts from McLeish?

Fear. That's the overriding emotion I have when I contemplate Villa's game on Saturday. Why? It's away at Manchester City.

Perhaps fear is too strong. Certainly anxiety. Yes, I'm definitely anxious. Apprehensive. And with good reason: I picture Villa, caught like a startled, stranded rabbit in the headlights of an ongoing light blue-coloured juggernaut, as it smashes headlong into our unbeaten league record. Smashes it, and smashes it into smithereens.

Fabio Capello took five strikers to Montenegro for England's 2012 European Championship qualifier, and while Gabriel Agbonlahor was not one of them, the fact that his omission from Capello's squad even merits a discussion at all is testament to the resurgence in form that the Villa man has shown during the first seven weeks of the Premier League season.

Wayne Rooney aside, it would be a reasonably straightforward exercise to demonstrate that Agbonlahor is the in-form English striker in the league at present.