The truth is there’s absolutely nothing to talk about lately apart from links to players that are probably never going to happen and the usual official site public relations type stuff, where players tell each other how good they are. I can’t be doing with that sort of stuff and prefer to stick with facts.
I could have gone into the latest accounts, but frankly don’t think much of those either. I’ll just say that in my opinion, all the bad things were purposely raised this year to make things look better for next year, which is when I think Randy Lerner will be more likely to be looking to sell.
That’s just my opinion though and it really doesn’t interest me much.
Things are much of a muchness and there’s nothing happening, in other words.
So, looking for my Villa “fix”, I turned to the run in for this season and it’s quite interesting.
Let’s look at the rest of March:
Aston Villa V Chelsea Sat 15 Mar
Aston Villa V Stoke Sun 23 Mar
Man Utd V Aston Villa Sat 29 Mar
Quite simply, I don’t see us getting much out of these.
Chelsea are just too resolute, maybe a draw against Stoke and even though I believe Man U are pretty dire, I just don’t see us getting anything.
Pretty bleak there then and one solitary point, where we’ll probably be dragged into the brown stuff for a while.
Onto April then and things should look better here;
Aston Villa V Fulham Sat 5 Apr
Crystal Palace V Aston Villa Sat 12 Apr
Aston Villa V Southampton Sat 19 Apr
Swansea V Aston Villa Sat 26 Apr
This is the month that really grieves me and at the same time demonstrates how far we’ve fallen.
A few seasons back, I’d have been licking my lips and fully expecting 12 points, while accepting 9 or 10.
This time round, who knows?
We seem to struggle against teams around us. Fulham can’t buy a win, but we’re at home. Palace have improved and we might scratch a draw. Southampton should be a decent game with goals, but could go any way, imo. Swansea, well, I’d expect 3 points there.
Would my expecting 7 points be unreasonable? It really shouldn’t be.
And then onto May;
Aston Villa V Hull Sat 3 May
Tottenham V Aston Villa Sun 11 May
I’ll actually go for the win against Hull, it’s just a hunch. But nothing against Spurs.
So 3 points there.
I haven’t included the Man City game, as I don’t know when it is, but see us getting nothing there, so it doesn’t really matter.
So 11 points to be had then, which should see us pretty comfortable on 42 points, which would make my bet with “B6” (finishing above/below 12th) seem very much in the balance. And somewhat deceptive, given that I think we’ve been decidely poor up to now, on the whole.
I’m not asking for your game by game predictions, but more your thoughts about if you think I’m in the ballpark or not.
Roll on Saturday and up the Villa!
No Badger123 I would say your spot on with that assumption, also bear in mind that what ever the out come on our possison at the end on the season is down to other teams performance, We have to buy no two ways on that problem is will they.? We all know our weakness but do they understand that, I don’t think we have an half descent coaching staff.
I think that’s a fair amount of points. Any more than that is a bonus. It’s a shame to see how much our expectations have dropped from just a few seasons ago. We should best Fulham at home but as you say, I’d take a point there. We must buy. Too many weak areas. Midfield, CB, new full backs (Bertrand would be a real coup, doubt we could pull it off though) and a striker to replace Benteke who most of us expect to leave this summer.
Im not holding out for any points this month,but april like you state badger normally i’d be doing cartwheels but we’re too hit & miss imo to even guess what the outcome of those games will be.i think this month may drag us down the table again relying on other results going in our favour.yes it will be a battle.i do think fulham & cardiff fill 2 of the relegation spots,possibly wba or norwich the other fingers crossed.utv
I think we will get at least a point v Chelsea. Mourinho never won a VP though neither had Fergie for his first 6 years or so then they’ve beaten us virtually every year at VP ever since
I think we will pick up 9 points from the remaining games which will see us ok UTV
I am with JD, nine points from the remaining games which will see us safe, God only knows where from though !!!! But the question has to asked why are we yet again relying on other teams around us getting shitter results….. A club the size of the Villa should surely be able to survive on its own two feet…. Frickin joke !
Looking back over the last ten years no team that has won 11 or more games has been relegated. That is three more wins and should be no problem. At the start of the season I wanted 50 points minimum to show real improvement. 19 points out of a possible 30 remaining is highly unlikely on current form although not impossible.
Because I have always lived in Surrey, Villa v Chelsea is one of the games I most look forward to. They are rarely dull. In truth the current Chelsea side are strong all over the pitch so a realist would not expect us to do more than scrape a lucky draw. We are 6-1 to win!
Having said that only a blind ref failed to spot Terry’s deliberate hand-ball in the box in the game at Chelsea this season and robbed us of a draw. What has changed since then is we are no better, especially without Bertrand – but Chelsea have at last given Hazard, their best attacking player, a starting place.
I can only see us winning if we catch them cold with two goals in the first ten minutes. Failing that they will grind us down, shredding Bennett if he is at left back.
one game at a time. chelsea could well play us of the park, then villa have raised their games on occasions against the so called bigger clubs ~ which chelsea are not 😛 never have been or will be, now city are the moneybags
i see us ruffling feathers and getting us some revenge, for the little managers gripes against us,also that cheating Ivanovic. its a bonus game it really is chelsea need to win, any dropped points now will be punished. which plays into villas game of sitting back and hitting on the break.
benteke could engineeer amove to the small london club with a stunning performance . centre backs are chelsea under belly pace is lacking terry and cahill both good defenders but are lacking of pace
2 1 aston villa win
Plus mourunho has never win at vp
id say you’re pretty spot on badger, id see something similar, I feel pretty confident we’ll manage 9pts+ by the end of the season, not much more but it should be pretty achievable.
there is still a little part of me that will remain concerned until we prove ourselves safe, I seem to remember blues being in a similar position when they went down(I mean the last time just to clarify, I know there’s so many to choose from 😉 )in fact they were just above us at the time and everyone was saying(punits, players, fans)they were safe pretty much as most people seem to be about us at the moment.
also I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Chelsea make a move for bentekke, if I were them id be straight on it.
although he may be a bit cheap for them, Chelsea don’t seem happy unless they are spending 50mil a throw.
maybe a deal is in the offing already involing a deal with Bertrand?