Will Aston Villa Survive?

This season has been very disappointing for Aston Villa so far and find themselves in 18th place with 11 games still to play.  Paul Lambert, who took over at Villa Park in the summer after the departure of Alex McLeish, has had full backing of the Villa fans despite heavy defeats to Manchester City, Chelsea and Tottenham, aswell as embarrassing cup exits to lower league Bradford City and Millwall. But is there still hope for Villa fans?

Next up for The Villains is at home to Manchester City on Monday night in a game where many Villa fans (including myself) are not expecting a win, or even a draw. Just that they play to the best of their abilities. But that is followed by vital games with Reading and QPR. Both massive 6 pointers. Villa have been very unpredictable this season varying from a win against Liverpool to losing to Wigan but there are some positives for Villa fans. 

Lambert’s young, hungry squad has come along way and have grown both mentally and physically since the horrors of the christmas period, showing what they can do in a 3-3 draw with Everton and a 2-1 win over West Ham. Villa certainly have no trouble finding the net, scoring 11 goals in their 7 games in 2013 with star man Christian Benteke scoring in 5 of the 7 games. 

Villa still have matches with top teams such and Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool (barely), but also many games where they can pick up 1, if not 3 points and so I believe that Villa stand a good chance of survival, but only if they give 100% in every game. Like Lambert said, ‘we need to be prepared for 12 cup finals’ and after the first of those finals was lost, they need to continue to put in everything they have in order for the club to survive. 

My prediction for Villa’s final points total is 35 and a narrow survival on the final day of the season.

Jack Howley