Villa, who have won three games on the spin since the international break to climb to fourth in the Championship table, face a test of their mettle against their fellow promotion hopefuls at Elland Road.

But Taylor believes there are too many games left to play for this fixture to be considered a test of their credentials. 

“I think it’s going to be a difficult game,” he told Express Sport.

“I know that because Leeds are doing OK, we’re doing OK. 

“It’s live on the TV and I think there’s going to be quite a few eyes on the game, so it’ll be interesting.  

“There’s still a long way to go. There’s been other times, especially last season, where there’s been certain games you could use as a yardstick but I’m not sure whether this is one because it’s still early in the season. 

“It’s away from home, it’s against one of the teams that have been fancied to make a challenge to go up so it would be nice to win but I wouldn’t say it’s the be all and end all of our season if we don’t get the right result.”

Villa manager Steve Bruce has not been able to call on skipper John Terry and star striker Jonathan Kodjia since the international break due to injury but his squad have managed just fine without them, picking up maximum points.  

Winger Albert Adomah has chipped in with five goals in three games while veteran centre-back Chris Samba has filled the void left by Terry in defence.  

And Taylor, who made 291 appearances for Villa, said: “You’re going to get injuries and I think it’s how you cope with them.

"You’ve got to have the squad to cope with them especially with the rigours of the Championship.”

Another player who has stepped up to the plate in recent weeks is 19-year-old striker Keinan Davis, who has led the line well in Kodjia’s absence. 

The teenager’s performance in the 2-1 win at QPR was described as “wonderful” by Bruce while Terry has admitted he is a “nightmare in training”. 

Davis put speculation over his future to bed by signing a long-term contract last month but Taylor has warned against placing too much pressure on his shoulders.  

“I think with Keinan, he’s set a standard now and he’s got to try and hit those heights every week but that’s always going to be difficult when you’re a young player,” he said. 

“We’ve got to try, especially with the injuries we’ve got, to get the best out of him, which is going to be difficult because he’s such a young player still.”

The trip to Leeds is the first of six games for Villa in December and Taylor fears injuries could catch up with them. 

“I think we’ve still got a bit of work to do [to achieve promotion] but over the amount of games that we are going to play the likes of John Terry and Jonathan Kodjia could be a miss,” he said. “We’ll have to wait and see.”

“I don’t want to stay in this division a lot longer than we have done.”