*All locked up without a hint of a key.*

George Graham, the Leeds manager said, “We’re not a championship team yet and I don’t think Villa are either”.

John Gregory, the Villa manager, seemed surprised to learn that his team would not win the title this season.

Given Gregory’s record since he took over from Brian Little at the end of February one could hardly blame him.

Under his management Villa have won 13 Premiership matches out of 17, drawn two and lost two.

That is championship-winning form.

Watching Villa on Saturday, however, it was clear that Graham had a point.

The signing of Paul Merson will go some way towards offsetting the loss of Dwight Yorke but he lacks the latter’s ability to drag defences apart.

Neither Merson nor Julian Joachim could produce anything to disturb the authority of the excellent Lucas Radebe at the heart of the Leeds defence, although there were moments when the carelessness of others might have given away simple goals.

Villa’s best chance of winning the game came in the 87th minute when Robert Molenaar’s attempt at trapping a long lob from Gareth Southgate on his chest saw the ball bounce loose to Joachim, who surged past the Dutch defender but shot wide with only Martyn to beat.

Graham grumbled about Villa’s time-wasting and felt the referee Jeff Winter could have added another 10 minutes. Winter could have added 10 days and it would still have been goalless.

The one redeeming feature was further evidence of the potential of Gareth Barry, the 17-year-old who has replaced Steve Staunton in Villa’s back three.

Barry’s cool control in defence offered a sharp contrast to the perspiring inadequacies of both attacks.

“If he wants to bring the ball down in our penalty box I won’t knock it out of him,” said Gregory, “I’ll encourage it.”

Maybe there is hope for English football after all.