It’s hard to build a case for Aston Villa to avoid relegation.
Four wins in 25 games, an inability to hold onto leads and the most worrying statistic – four straight home loses, including the last three against their relegation rivals.
The bookies make Villa joint favourites with QPR to drop to the Championship and we’ve got a manager who spends most of his post-match interviews scratching his head for answers.
It’s not looking good, but with a third of the season left, it’s far from over.
Villa are capable of scintillating attacking football.
For just under an hour of play against United (2-0 up), the first hour away at Everton (3-1 up), the last hour at Liverpool (3-1), the first 45 minutes of the Baggies away game, and in the second half of the Norwich League Cup game, Villa have looked more Champions’s League than Championship. The biggest problem you can have at the bottom is not scoring goals. Recently this hasn’t been a problem and Villa even have Darren Bent on the bench to call upon. The potential to win games is clearly there.
A 20-goals a season man?
Currently on 14, if Christian Benteke can break the 20 goal mark in all competitions, this would be a big step in helping secure survival. While at least another season at Villa would aid the player’s and team’s development, the fact he would go onto double or triple his wages means he might not be around the Midlands for long. It’ll be a massive shame to see the big man go so early, but nothing will be as crushing as watching him from the Championship. The future is the future, it’s what Benteke can do for Villa now that counts.
There HAS been defensive resistance.
After getting tonked 5-0 by Manchester City (a result triggered by dodgy referee decisions), Villa went onto to keep three clean sheets in their next four games; three of them at Villa Park.
While only scoring one goal in the process in the game against Reading, meant a haul of five points, the other two were decent hard-fought points against Stoke and Arsenal.
This period of defensive resilience was only two months ago in which Ron Vlaar only played 51 minutes of the 360 minute period. If Villa could find another three clean sheets in a four game period, it would go a long way to helping aid avoiding the drop.
However, at the moment, even my school team’s defence back in the day, had more discipline in terms of marking players, getting goal side, winning headers and holding a defensive line.
Yacouba Sylla needs to an instant miracle man
If the French midfielder adds instant steel to the Villa midfield, it’ll only help the defence.
It’ll be a big leap of faith to rely on the inexperienced youngster, who until now plied his trade in the French second division, but if he can pull it off, he’ll be up there with Benteke as Lambert’s signing of the season.
Wins needed asap
Hopefully all the above will help Villa claim at least five wins from the final 13 games.
Not to mention two or three draws. As we’ve stated before, five points per each remaining month of the season are needed to survive.
Lets just do it.
UTV
Do you think Villa will survive? Please leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
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We’d have to sign 3 or 4 household names for him to even contemplate it I reckon. Just isn’t going to happen. The best we can hope for is to become a good stepping stone club like Udinese. It’s not a new problem though – I’ve long said that we develop good young players but have no top quality seniors for them to learn from. That’s why players like Gabby show a lot of promise that never gets fulfilled. If I was a good young player, I’d join Villa for the game time, but after a season, I’d be off to greener pastures. Lack of vision at the club.
Agree with everything, apart from another season at Villa being good for Benteke’s development – If i were him, I’d want out in the summer irrespective of what league we are in. It saddens me to say it, but he won’t get to play alongside and learn from top drawer players at Villa. For his personal development, he would be far better off going to a CL side where he can become even better. Arsenal, Chelsea or Spurs would take him to another level.
That’s the football fan in me speaking, not the Villa fan obviously.
CraigWright That’s only if he’s playing week-in-week-out at the top teams. The responsibility of being top man at Villa gives him a big stage to play on, bearing in mind he’s only 22. He’s the kind of player that would allow Villa to challenge, if he had a proper team around him. I think we needed a Wembley cup final and a couple of more established signings to show Benteke we had bigger plans. Unfortunately, I don’t think there is a plan now, in terms of for success on the football pitch.