This is a headline you will be seeing very often this week, not because a lot of football journalists, experts and pundits will be talking about this. But it’s what many Villa fans believe, including myself. Newcastle are a team that will be fighting for survival, it’s also a game that Garde has to win. Newcastle have hit some stunning form in the past two weeks, beating Liverpool and Tottenham to get 6 points, embarrassingly our entire point tally for the season. If we lose to Newcastle, the gap between Villa and Newcastle would be 13 points, that’s too much to catch up, even for the rare optimist at Villa these days.
Villa have been playing ok, especially in the second half. But the team is so fragile right now, if Villa concede first, or in the first 15 minutes, I don’t see Villa coming back into it. The biggest problem is that Villa haven’t really been able to score goals. Ayew is most likely our most inform player, and the only player that really tries for 90 minutes. But he too has struggled to score goals. Sinclair played well against Arsenal, but as we’ve seen with Sinclair, one game he’s lively and involved, the other, he’s rather invisible. What Sinclair will turn up this weekend?
The defence still remains a question, Lescott has been improving in recent weeks. Is it worth to partner him with Richards? Who is probably our best centre defender. There are just so many questions, for a game that has so much significance. This game, is the equivalent of playing in the Champions League Final, it means that much.
With Newcastle, you still don’t know what Newcastle you will get. Could Newcastle play poorly against a team around them as Villa have in the past? Or will they get 3 wins in a row?
OK take all the emotion out, and my thoughts are. We are definatly relegated no mater if we win the next 6 games on the bounce, we can sustain the ratio of winning and drawing enough to be lifted above another two teams.
The worry has to be how we prepare for the next / lower level, and if the club can and have the ability to re-build, or do we just go into demise.
My fear is it could take 20-30 years to get back the lost passion of our great club, and all because of business failure, and the lack of enthusiasm from rich kids playing a sport for money, we supporters give to the lost cause.
Anyway let’s hope we see some winning games next season so we can have something to smile about.
Villa Till I Die
problem is VTID, the club tell us we have been ‘rebuilding’ for the last 4 years and look where that has got us…
Haven’t we got the joint worst winless streak record along with York..
were down regardless and most of us have accepted that.
newcastle have just won 2 on the bounce sitting back and hitting on the break. but i can see them coming out flying at us and if they score early it will be a drubbing.
what i dread is how the media are gonna love it. we all remember sending the toon down at villa park and laughing at shearer. there gonna give it to us ten fold
Newcastle will be at full confidence after their recent results, while we have a totally gutless bunch of players who have no fight in them.
Hence I don’t believe we have any right to expect anything at Newcastle, as poor as I think they are.
That said, I don’t think we’ll end up with 11 points either.
We will scratch out a couple of wins, although I can’t see where they’re coming from, so at least won’t have that sad record.
I do feel there’s more than a touch of karma with this particular game though and I had a sneaky feeling at the time, that with this being footy, our gloating at relegating Newcastle might come to bite us on the arse one day.
Has anyone else noticed who we play in our second last game?
Yep, Newcastle at home.
That’s when we’re going to get the real stick 🙁