Played 13, won 1, drawn 2, lost 10. Aston Villa have made a shocking start to the season. After flapping around like a headless chicken, the club have suddenly wandered into a seemingly fatal looking fox trap.
Relegation has been clearly signposted for Aston Villa for the past few seasons, the club’s previous main asset on the pitch, Christian Benteke pretty much saved them single-handedly. The Lerner administration thought a thrifty policy could keep them a float while he looked to sell, when if they build a proper team around Benteke with shrewd purchases of better quality (for example, why not buy one decent left-back earlier, rather than four sub-standard ones ala Stevens, Bennett, Cissokho and Richardson).
MOMS has already stated that there was not enough net spend in the summer to make the squad better. Not only did Villa sell it’s best players, but also it stripped away the spine of the team and also lost the only on-pitch leaders it had. What did it replace them with?
Villa have been mismanaged on and off the field, it’s as simple as that. If Villa go down, it’s time to get very angry with those who serve the club.
In the meantime, here’s five reasons to be cheerful as Aston Villa fans…
4. DAMAGE LIMITATION
Lets be honest, it looked like Everton were heading for at least six, when they were 4-0 up at the hour mark. It could have been so much worse. Yet, while Villa now have the worst goal difference in the league after their 4-0 defeat, it’s only by one goal.
While their current points situation is woeful, a few wins will soon see them with favourable goal difference over their relegation rivals. Of course, getting those wins is another story.
