Aston Villa are running out of time

Villa’s hopes of finishing in the top 2 have been dashed in the past few weeks, with Cardiff winning an amazing 8 games in the trot, coupled with Fulham not losing a game since December! As we edge towards being a team that has to settle for the playoffs, Villa have one last throw of the dice over the next 10 days. Cardiff have back to back games against Wolves and Villa, and if they lose both, Villa could be only 1 point behind automatic promotion spots. Unfortunately, with Fulham’s run of form, we are now also relying upon them slipping up as well.

Where has it all gone wrong for Villa?

Well, ironically all roads lead back to the demolition of Wolves under a month ago. Villa had just come off a 4-1 home win against the Champions elect, but Bruce made the error, which he still speaks of now, of keeping the same team just three days later against QPR. This damaging defeat then led us to spiral to back to back defeats with Bolton sneaking a 1-0 win at the Macron stadium. The average age of our starting 11 means that this far into the season, 3 games in a week would be a tough task. It’s a shame for Bruce, as if Villa don’t go up, most people will look back to this as the turning point.

Even Bruce himself takes the blame on this one, and its a big shame as he has put a team together that has put the pride back into Aston Villa, but he said; “I’ve been in it a long time, making three or four changes against QPR was the way to go…So I’ve kicked myself.”

But, against Reading, Bruce made 5 changes and it showed. Has Bruce made these types of changes too late in the season? Only time will tell but, Villa looked fresh, and were relentless in their 3-0 victory on Tuesday. It gave Jonathan Kodjia an opportunity to get 30mins under his belt as he comes back from 5 months out, and also gave the likes of Robert Snodgrass and Albert Adomah a bit of a breathe ahead of the hectic run in, and likely playoff games.

Villa have Norwich away on Sky at 12:30pm on Saturday, and simply must win every game between now and the end of the season. But, as it stands I wouldn’t bet against a Villa vs Fulham playoff final at Wembley in early May. Gulp.