Dave Woodhall on Villa losing again.
It’s getting increasingly harder to write about the Villa, with every match seeming to follow the same route. They look promising in flashes, you think that they might, possibly, have turned the corner, then something happens to shatter every hope, dream and illusion.
Sunderland last Saturday was another in the long-running catalogue of errors that is Aston Villa 2015-16. They started off alright, and Sunderland’s opening goal was arguably against the run of play. It was also yet another deflection, more evidence that when you’re at the bottom there’s only one kind of luck you’re going to get. Still, as we’ve seen on a couple of occasions lately, the team didn’t let this setback get to them and Carles Gil equalised with an absolutely stunning acrobatic volley.
Villa might have gone on to win after that; the home side are in poor form and the Stadium of Light is one of Villa’s favourite haunts. But no, nine minutes later we’re behind again and from then on the only incident of note apart from another increase in the injury list was our defence’s contribution to the pantomime season for Sunderland’s third.
There really is only one place Villa are headed after this debacle, and the solitary consolation is that it won’t come as a surprise. We might as well start treating the rest of the season as a farewell tour of the Premier League – there’s an old adage that teams sometimes start to perform better once the pressure’s off, so who knows, Villa might win a game before British Summer Time starts again. I hesitate to say anything in the team’s defence but they do fleetingly play well in most games. if they can only make these good patches last a bit longer we might get a surprise yet. Although, part of me is thinking that if we’re going down we may as well do it in style. There are plenty more records to break yet.
There’s a day off from league action on Saturday (there’s also an obvious joke there but I’ll let you fill it in yourselves) with a trip to Wycombe in the FA Cup. It’s a no-win situation in more ways than one; the players won’t be fancying it, the media will be secenting blood, we’ve played there before so it won’t be a new ground for many supporters, and the ground’s location at the end of an industrial estate plus early kick-off time isn’t exactly conducive for a good day out.
It’ll be interesting to see what kind of team Remi Garde puts out. Will he not bother with the cup and field a second string, or hope that his first teamers can go for a morale-boosting victory? Whatever he chooses, surely to God Villa will be able to field eleven players with the ability to beat Wycombe Wanderers.
