It was obvious Dean Smith & Villa's model is deeply flawed. The systems Smith plays are old-school & flawed and the transfer market approach is similarly archaic. They are not building towards a specific system - Villa simply signed players they think are good with no clear plan. 
Right there Villa scored because Buendia and Watkins are good players but their methods of chance creation are reliant on player quality. They are legitimate relegation contenders despite having top, top players like Ollie Watkins and Danny Ings because of the tactical imbalance.
And right there they conceded because their pressing structure was bang average. Smith is a very average coach, but Villa's fundamental approach to long-term progression is very poor. The only way to rebuild is to pick a manager with a good & set system before building around it.
Villa also have a big issue with their lack of leaders at the back. Mings drops far too deep and Hause does the same - these are meant to be the leaders to maintain the high line. This means the vertical compactness of the team is poor + they're terrible at defending the box.
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