Villa Are At The Business End Of 2020/21 - Where Do You Sit With These Season Ratings

With the March international break behind us now, Aston Villa are truly at the business end of the season and we went into the Fulham clash on Sunday looking to get back to winning ways.

It was a woeful game but credit to head coach Dean Smith for finally changing things in a different manner after we fell behind, as a brace from Trezeguet and an Ollie Watkins effort took us to a 3-1 victory and a much needed return to winning ways and three points.

As we all know, form since the turn of the New Year has been very poor based on our own set standards and it hasn’t just been results that have been erratic, our performances have been all over the place as well but it’s personal choice on whether you more blame our Covid outbreak for that, other teams getting used to us, or just simply hitting a bit of a fatigue wall – let alone just our form rebalancing after a very bright start to the year.

With such a contrast in the season, the debates about whether or not we are moving forward or falling into decline are to be expected and I’ve covered them on the front page a few times across the season, and the debate has certainly raged on our Vital Villa Forum.

It’s easy to get bogged down on the t’internet as people naturally double down on their original opinions and all sides can find things that ‘prove’ their standpoint, but a recent poll in The Athletic did raise my eyebrows, as it seems that when you take the debate out of it, most fans are understandably quite delighted with the progress we have made – even if there are still clearly things to improve upon.

83% of fans are happy with the performance this season so far
88% will be happy if Dean Smith is still manager next year
95% think the club is well-run
95% are happy with transfer business
56% think we have a chance of silverware by the end of next season
74% think we play entertaining football

Surely it’s the indication that we are moving in the right direction, even if we haven’t completely turned the corner yet.

Wherever you sit on the opinion charts, few can deny that the last few seasons have been a marked improvement on the last decade, so long may that continue.