Sheffield Wednesday’s play-off hopes have been jilted after Jonathan Kodjia’s brace secured Aston Villa a 2-0 win.

Kodjia’s goals either side of half-time sunk their Yorkshire opponents, who were forced to play the majority of the second-half with ten men. French defender Vincent Sasso received a straight red card for The Owls shortly after the interval following a foul on midfielder Conor Hourihane.

Wednesday manager Carlos Carvalhal was forced to watch the majority of the second period from the stands. He was dismissed following his behaviour after Sasso’s red card.

The victory for Steve Bruce’s side moves them into 12th position in the Championship table, the first time that they have reached the top half of the league standings since the turn of the year.

Pressure will be mounting on Carvalhal’s side as their lead over seventh placed Fulham has been cut to two points.

Shoot! looks at the five major talking points from Saturday’s clash at Villa Park…

Kodjia at the double

It won’t come as a surprise to Aston Villa fans that Ivorian striker Kodjia netted both of his side’s goals on Saturday.

His impressive debut season for Bruce’s side has seen him bag 15 goals already this season, all of which have come in the league.

Kodjia put his side in the lead towards the end of the first-half, after his powerful header off Conor Hourihane’s cross beat goalkeeper Kieren Westwood from close-range.

The forward got his second with just over ten minutes remaining of the match. Albert Adomah teed up Kodjia with a clever through pass, putting the Ivorian clear on goal. Kodjia took the ball round ‘keeper Westwood before slotting home into the empty net.

Villa manager Bruce was full of praise for his in form forward after the match.

He said, “His goals are just quite incredible, and he’s come up with two today, so how can you criticise anybody who’s got 15 for the season.

“He’s been a big plus, that’s for sure.”

‘Carlost’ it

One of the major talking points from the match was the dismissal of both Wednesday manager Carlos Carvalhal and defender Vincent Sasso.

Sasso received a straight red card after a strong late tackle on Villa midfielder Hourihane early on in the second-half. Carvalhal was sent off following the incident for his reaction to the incident.

Carvalhal said that his dismissal was due to him being out of his technical area, rather than his behaviour.

He said, “I had a talk with the referee and I was not offensive to anybody. I didn’t say one single word offensive.

“He made the decision because I was outside of the technical area.”

Opposing manager Bruce was shocked that he saw his Portuguese compatriot sent to the stands.

He added, “It’s not like Carvalhal is it, I’ve never seen him like that.

“Look we all react like that sometimes and the decision to send the boy off is game changing and he knows that. I didn’t think anything of it.”

Threesy does it

The win for Villa was their third consecutive home victory in the Championship. The last time they reached such a feat came during November and December of 2016, where they won an impressive five matches at Villa Park on the bounce.

Despite the victory over their promotion chasing opponents, Villa manager Bruce felt there is still room for improvement from his team.

He said, “We’ve still got to be better with the ball and the big decisions went our way. We could’ve made life a bit easier and we’ve missed some good chances.”

He did however praise his side for showing signs of having a good mentality, which he hopes will enable the club as a whole to unite.

Bruce added, “What we have got here is spirit which takes time and I think that’s vitally important that we breathe a bit of life back into the club; it has had a tough time and they are trying their best and that’s all you can ask for.”

Wednesday’s injury woes

A shock omission from the Owls’ team was star player Fernando Forestieri (Above).

The midfielder did not feature against Villa after being ruled out with a knee injury.

His absence was just one of a number of injured first-team players that Wednesday currently possess.

Defender Glenn Loovens also picked up an injury during the match, meaning that the Owls could be without nine first-team players for their match against Reading on Friday.

Sasso’s red card also means that Wednesday could be without a single first choice centre-back for their match on Friday, with Tom Lees, Sam Hutchinson and Loovens all currently doubts.

Villa’s busy treatment room, too

Similarly to their Yorkshire opposition, Villa are in a serious injury crisis!

Before they announced their starting team, they were without eight first-team playersm including the likes of Jack Grealish and January signings Birkir Bjarnason and Scott Hogan.

This was made worse during the warm-up. Midfielder Henri Lansbury (Pictured) was set to start the game, but he was forced to sit out of the match, after picking up an Achilles injury during his pre-match routine.

On the injury, manager Bruce said that Lansbury will be assessed in the coming days.

He said, “Lansbury’s is an Achilles injury, which is not great, so we will see how that is in the next 24 to 48 hours.”

As if it could not have got worse for the West Midlands side, Villa saw defender Nathan Baker taken off midway through the first-half with a knee injury.

Despite their recent injury troubles, Villa have been putting a good run of form together recently with what has seemingly become a depleted squad.