Aston Villa’s next game is their biggest in recent history

Last Saturday was Aston Villa’s heaviest defeat of the season, and after renewed optimism following a 0-0 draw against Manchester City two weeks ago, Remi Garde and his players came crashing back down to earth at Goodison Park. Villa were torn to shreds and gave their worst performance of the season, and that really is saying something. Remi Garde must have been bewildered as to why his players didn’t turn up (Micah Richards has since admitted to not ‘turning up’).

Another game has gone by, another game without scoring a goal and another game closer to the Championship. The good news is that Norwich, Newcastle and Bournemouth all failed to win (as I write this, Sunderland are yet to play) so there continues to be a small glimmer of hope for the Villans, but time is running out fast and with confidence at an all time low, the home game against Watford is the biggest game in Villa’s recent history.

Even though Villa have been fighting relegation for the past five years, the club have never been in this position before. No club has ever survived being in Villa’s position and if Villa are to get out this mess, they simply have to win against Watford this Saturday at Villa Park. With a lack of a proven Premier League goal scorer, or proven attacking midfielder, its hard to see how Villa will even score to give themselves a chance of winning.

‘Must win’ games and ‘six pointers’ get billed throughout the season, but 13 games in and with confidence at such a low as well as fans starting to write the team off, a bad result on Saturday could be the biggest indicator that Villa will lose its status as one of only 7 teams to play in every season of the Premier League. Having lost 10 out of the opening 13 games this season, its imperative that Villa record their second win of the season to give Villa a fighting chance of survival this season. The bottom 4/5 teams are already shaping up and if Villa can grab 3 points on Saturday, teams like Norwich will start to look over their shoulders.

The players will be extremely nervous on Saturday, as will the fans, Remi Garde and Randy Lerner (if he cares about protecting his investment). It’s about time Aston Villa’s recruitment policy paid dividends…