Lets skip the game, we’ll address that elsewhere (if we can be bothered unlike the team). Aston Villa got beat again and now their Premier League winless run now stands at 19 games (D5 L14) – the joint fourth worst run in the history of the competition.
Beating Sunderland was the kind of result that has normally helped us stay up.
Villa were also the lowest scorers in the Premier League going into the game, but the real problems are at the back. Villa have only kept one clean sheet in their past 19 Premier League games away from home overall.
Whoever thought that the squad assembled in the summer was good enough for the Premier League was kidding themselves, especially after what quality the previous season’s team did have, left Villa behind. A less than £10 million net spend, as we’ve repeatedly suggested, was a recipe for disaster.
Villa boss Rémi Garde has been presented as blameless in Villa’s dramatic downfall, with Tim Sherwood now out of the line of fire. Ultimately, the blame should be firmly at the feet of both Randy Lerner and Tom Fox (one and a half seasons to finish off the club’s destruction is fast going), but Garde also will need to step up soon.
It’s nine games without a win now. A big test for him will be the FA Cup game versus Wycombe Wanderers, he has no excuses if he fails in that game. If we don’t have the players to win that game then those involved in the summer’s player recruitment should be on the first train out of Birmingham.
In the meantime, Garde was unhappy that Big Sam didn’t shake his hand at the start of the game. I don’t know the fall story there. Maybe he forgot? Maybe it was mind games?
Garde was obviously frustrated by this and also no doubt by the result, leading him to snub the Black Cats boss in return after the game.
Reémi Garde by all accounts from staff at the club is a very nice and personable guy (nicer than Sherwood), the problem is nice guys don’t always win. If he didn’t know it already, he has the sternest test of his career and must step up.
He needs wins, because I for one at the end of the season will not entertain a manager who hasn’t won a game in the Premier League in 27 attempts to be entrusted with the task of getting Villa out of the Championship.
UTV
Follow MOMS on Facebook – myoldmansaid
