Villa and the unthinkable

Monday, 10/01/2011

by Francis Maguire, Shoot's Aston Villa blogger

I considered writing a blog after the Chelsea game that lauded our impressive performance at Stamford Bridge and claimed the 3-3 draw was a turning point in our season.

But I’ve learned my lesson from the Manchester United match where we drew 2-2 and then proceeded to go on a shocking run of form. It seems that if you get your hopes up for Aston Villa this season, the players will let you down in the next game.

Drawing at Stamford Bridge is utterly irrelevant if you aren’t going to beat Sunderland at home. Even worse, we actually managed to lose the game thanks to a Phil Bardsley cracker.

In a non-event of a match where two players somehow managed to get sent off, Aston Villa, once again, proved their relegation potential. The Villans had one chance all game – and who did this most simple of tap-ins fall to? The big man, Emile Heskey, who has no excuse whatsoever for missing such an easy chance.

This is not to undermine a very decent Sunderland side, but losing to the Black Cats at home after such a promising game against Chelsea is a disgrace. Furthermore, it appears that we can’t take much comfort from the Chelsea result because they also happen to be in a dire run of form.

Following the miserable Sunderland loss, we are now camped inside the relegation zone. It’s safe to say that if we keep on failing against sides that possess a half-decent strike force, we can look forward to a trip to Coventry this time next year.

The absolute worst thing is that I can’t see Villa going on a run that might pull us away from the relegation zone. And, to make matters worse, we have Birmingham City away in the next game. Suddenly, this passionate derby has taken on the role of a relegation six-pointer. Losing the match is unthinkable.

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