With a lack of a game this weekend, and the Manchester City match being Monday night, it might well seem like talking about a game of football that is yet to be played has been going on for the past week when it is only two or three days.

Given all that, I’m not going to get into the City game directly but rather about what Aston Villa have left to for the remainder of the season. This isn’t to say that we can’t get anything from Monday, but rather that I have nothing new to add.

As we all know, Villa suffer from two types of issue nowadays – those inflicted by the opposition, and those that are self-inflicted. For me, there has been something of a parallel with my own life going through a few rough weeks of being unwell, only to then take to the local drinking establishments on Friday due to my turning 34 in the week.

You see, for me, most of my issues I’ve had have been unavoidable, just as Villa will come up to situations where they are unable to win games despite their best efforts. However, it is a bit difficult to get as much sympathy when instead of doing what was right and being sensible, you’re off drinking pints with the lads.

Again, Villa have had a similar situation. Fans have, for the most part, stayed on side though there have been times when issues have been self-inflicted by our beloved team. Whether down to lack of communication, young players learning their trade under extreme pressure and making mistakes, or some other issue, most will accept that the club’s position at the wrong end of the table takes something from both being outclassed as well as prone to self-sabotage.

In recent times, Villa have started to show signs of learning how to avoid as many self-inflicted wounds. The loss against Arsenal, even though it obviously gave us a big zero points, was far from a whitewash. 2-1 is far from being destroyed.

With that said, failure to secure points in whatever game Villa are playing at that particular time is what will cause any club to slide down the table. As much as this sounds like perhaps the most obvious statement in the universe, we have to start winning points.

I’ve said before that I don’t care precisely how those games are won so long as they are. That doesn’t mean I am going to relentlessly criticise the team if we do lose, but rather that the club’s ability to learn lessons – whether they do or don’t – will define whether Villa can finish above or below the relegation cut off.

I may sound like I am banging a drum that has been hit far too many times, but we can’t afford an implosion of support. With that said, the pressure will certainly be on Paul Lambert in the perceived “winnable” games against lower league opposition, and failure to beat those around us will ultimately prove whether we deserve to be in the league.

In an article earlier in the season, I said that the club can take two different perspectives on their current plight. The first is that they can see themselves as mentally beaten, and on a downward path, something that worsening league finishes illustrate in clear black-and-white.

Alternatively, the team can count themselves lucky they are still in the league and use that mentality to inspire a comeback. Fans sometimes contribute to this sense of “expectation”, even though is has regressed in recent times, but now is not the time to sit and ponder past glories, nor to point fingers and make the mood get on a bigger downer.

Sure, we’re in a fight to avoid the drop, but until mathematics prove we are beyond salvation, I’ll be there every week hammering that drum of support.

Will we avoid the drop? Nothing is certain, though the key matter here is we are still in the mix to survive, and that perspective may go a long way to illustrate just who has the battling mentality to know how to claw above the dreaded drop zone come the end of the season.

Leave a Reply