Can Samatta deliver in Aston Villa's make-or-break final game?

Just when they seemed to be down and out, heading back to the Championship after securing promotion via the playoffs last year, Aston Villa have found a previously lacking resilience to pick up seven points from the last nine.

Tuesday night's 1-0 defeat of FA Cup finalists Arsenal was probably the most significant result of a topsy-turvy campaign which ends with a trip to West Ham United, a side that were until recently fighting for their Premier League status as well.

The unforeseen run cobbled together by Smith's side will probably be attributed to many of Villa's players realising the ramifications of being back in the Championship in a pandemic-hit universe.

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The Villans are now seemingly giving that extra bit at the back and up front, and statistics against Mikel Arteta's men somewhat validates this claim. The West Midlands side made 16 tackles and cleared the ball away from danger a staggering 32 times, the highest numbers they've recorded in both metrics since the restart.

In attack, even the much-maligned Trezeguet is on the goal scoring trail again. Having failed to score a Premier League goal since early December, the Egypt star has now netted three in both wins over Crystal Palace and the Gunners to take his league tally for his maiden campaign in English football to six - only talisman Jack Grealish has more.

Still, one deficiency remains for Smith's side: their centre-forwards' inability to score.

The signing of Mbwana Samatta, the January addition from Belgian side Genk, has bore little fruit since making his £8.5 million switch in the winter window. With one goal in 13 league appearances since becoming the first Tanzanian to play in the Prem, Villa have had to look for goals from elsewhere in their battle to avoid relegation.

Samatta had found the back of the net seven times in 17 starts in Belgium before his transfer, while an even more impressive three goals in six in the Champions League group stage, including one against Liverpool, presented encouraging signs for Smith's team.

Given the season-ending injury of £22 million record signing Wesley on New Year's Day, the East African forward was supposed to fill the void of the Brazilian striker, who'd scored a decent five times in 21 games pre-injury.

However, the club's January addition last scored on his league debut at Bournemouth in February, a strike which incidentally was the club's first headed goal of the season. At the time it bade well for Smith's team as it seemed like his strength in the air could be harnessed to win more points for a side heavily reliant on Grealish to create and score.

When Samatta then scored a bullet header exactly a month later to halve the deficit in the EFL Cup final defeat by Manchester City, those assumptions were given further credence.

Unfortunately, the Tanzania star hasn't scored since March, with his confidence seemingly ebbed away as the goals have dried up. His countenance after heading over from a pin-point Ahmed El-Mohamady cross against Palace was telling; it depicted a forward on a scoreless run that's now affecting his self-belief.

Interestingly, having attempted a total of seven shots in his first three league games against the Cherries, Tottenham Hotspur and Southampton, the ex-Genk man has had a miserly three in Villa's last three games. Against Arsenal on Tuesday, he had none and carried little threat against a Gunners defence that, recent wins over Liverpool and Man City aside, have shown they can be got at.

Even more fascinating has been Samatta's tendency to not be in the box in recent games, instead retaining a preference to graft for long punts downfield or win knockdowns. This is a departure from his opening games in English football where he was regularly in the box and available to be picked out via crosses or cut-backs.

The upshot of this loss of morale has seen Smith's side struggle to hit the back of the net before Trezeguet recently pick up the mantle. Two of Villa's goals before the North African attacker's improvement in form were scored by defenders (Kortney Hause against Chelsea and El-Mohamady vs Newcastle United ).

The other member of the side to have scored since the restart is centre-back Ezri Konsa, who netted in a 1-1 draw with Everton last week. The fact 50 percent of Villa's goals in the last month have come from defenders highlights the drop-off in productivity of Smith's attacking players since June's resumption, including Grealish, who hasn't played particularly well post-lockdown.

Smith's current strikers, Samatta and Keinan Davis, account for one goal between them since February, a truly inadequate return in front of goal. There won't be a better time to come up trumps than at the London Stadium on Sunday, but recent evidence indicates this could be a long shot.

Having had on-loan Tammy Abraham score a staggering 25 goals last year, the West Midlands team have had their strikers largely toil this term, probably an indicator of why they've struggled this term.

If Villa do stay up, and their latest results suggest they just might, Smith will need to ask serious questions about Samatta as well as his colleagues at centre-forward, and whether the strikers who never seem to score are the right crop for the club going forward.