What could be worse than getting knocked out of the FA Cup at Villa Park 3-0 by Swansea City?
Well, what about being beaten 3-0 away at Wigan, a team that hadn’t won since November and had failed to score in their last three home games which all ended in defeat.
1. Wigan had lost their last three home league games without scoring a single goal.
— My Old Man Said (@oldmansaid) January 12, 2019
2. Wigan one win in last 14 games
3. Villa last week seemingly sacrificed FA Cup for the league and rested players
4. Villa ZERO shots on target all game.
5. Wigan 3 Villa 0#AVFC
Yes Villans, 2019 sucks already.
Why can’t there be a new year that brings us hope for a change?
While we wait 2019 out to see what 2020 brings, here’s five reasons to be cheerful as Villans…
Abraham Stays
While several Villa fans on social media seemed to be more concerned about what was best for Tammy Abraham’s career, than what was best for their own club, Tammy Abraham stays.
Many Villa fans were seen wishing him well at Wolves and saying they didn’t blame him for going to play in the Premier League – even though he hadn’t actually left yet?
It was the same back in the summer with Grealish and Spurs.
Have some Villans gone soft? Is this typical of the modern day fan?
What is best for Villa should be the only concern, and that means keeping the club’s best players.
If you thought getting into the play-offs was going to be a tough task this season, just try it without the league’s top scorer, who had scored a third of all of Villa’s goals.
Kally
The only thing positive you could say about the 3-0 defeat against Wigan is it could have been worse if it wasn’t for a couple of decent saves from Lovre Kalinic. After a ropey debut in the FA Cup, Kalinic looked a bit better behind a flimsy backline. On a good day, he wouldn’t have been one of the five reasons, but we’re desperate.
Back-to-back
Well, Villa have back-to-back home games to try and get themselves out of this mid-table limbo. Considering we’ve only lost twice at Villa Park this season (although two times too many), it’s a positive thing, right?
Well, it is until you see that Villa have only won five times in 14 games in all competitions at Villa Park and haven’t won any of their last five games at home.
So, hopefully we’re due a couple of wins, even if one of the games is against the division’s form team Hull City.
Grealish Return
It’s seven games and counting for the missing Jack Grealish, a spell in which Villa have only won once.
Grealish’s most likely return games seems to be against Sheffield United, which means he’ll miss the upcoming games against Hull, Ipswich and Reading.
If Villa don’t get at least seven out of nine points in those games, Grealish might as well have stayed in Dubai to extend his week’s rehabilitation into a holiday for the rest of the season.
Collins Virtue
As reported previously on MOMS, ex-Villa centre-back James Collins made his debut for Ipswich Town, after a long spell on the sidelines after leaving West Ham at the end of last season.
Collins had a spell training at Aston Villa and had actually signed a contract to help with Villa’s defensive shortfall. However, the 35-year-old got injured in his very next training session after penning the deal.
Rather than sit out and pick up the money while he recovered, he tore up his contract out of principle.
Collins recently looked back at the incident last year.
“They offered me a short term contract and I got injured the morning I signed the contract and I ripped that up.
“I literally signed the contract, went out to training and pulled my calf in the first warm-up session so I just went in and said ‘that’s not right to come in and take money,’
“I could have been out for four weeks and I said ‘let’s rip that up.’ It was probably more embarrassment more than anything.”
“I went up there under Steve Bruce and two days in he got the sack and Dean Smith came in and let me carry on training there,” Collins added
“When Steve Bruce got the sack they could have said ‘thanks a lot, we don’t want you’ but they kept me on and it just seemed like the right thing to do.
“I was there years ago for three years and loved it up there, such nice people and such a nice football club. They treated me unbelievably.
“At my age I’m not particularly in it for the money – I just want to play more football.”
Fair play Mr Collins. We wish you all the best at Ipswich.
UTV
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No getting away from it the Wigan defeat was totaly unacceptable, Dean Smith rightly blames the players but he also should take responsibility poor team selection and the subs beggar belief.
Having said that there has to be a massive and immediate response, this is how it all started with Bruce and we know how that ended. I see that we have given a new contract to a youngster today and yes thats good for the future, but I’m more interested in what we are doing immediately and I can’t see a lot happening.if we loose to Hul I think all hell will let loose and Smith will loose the fans, then it’s same old same old. So Smith nothing less than two back to back wins will do.