All good things must come to an end, and Villa’s grand run of seven and counting was no different today. Fulham were full value for their 2-0 win, pulled within four of Villa, and dropped us to third.
As luck would have it, Villa’s aim for eight straight features us away to the Cottagers and potentially missing two of our brightest lights. I don’t know why, but when things are going well, it sort of always seems that someone important gets injured. Which isn’t to say that Villa can’t win without Jack Grealish and/or Albert Adomah.
Our magnificent FA Cup run is over, but I don’t think Steve Bruce was wrong to stay focused on the league. The Forest match is more important than extra games in a competition we’re not going to win. If we’ve weathered a bit of a storm and found ourselves coming out stronger on the other side, Villa are in a good spot to make a run at it over the final 20. And that’s all that counts.
We’ll travel to down to 12th-placed Brentford for tonight’s game sitting eighth and needing a win to get back up to sixth. Brentford only have six fewer points than we, and I’m wondering what they’ve spent.
The festive season is upon us, and we’d like our first present in the form of three points against Sheffield United. Doesn’t seem like much to ask, given that their recent run of form is worse than ours. And if we’d like to stay in the playoff places a week Monday, a win is rather obviously what we need. I find myself saying that every week, and it’s getting more true as time goes by.
