Premier League: Aston Villa with a golden chance to secure safety
By Dean Caffrey
With only 1 week remaining of this Premier League season, it is one with huge significance at the bottom of the table, where Villa are battling Watford and Bournemouth to stay up.
With Bournemouth’s loss to Southampton ensuring they are 3 points from safety on 31 points with 37 games played (a game more than Villa and Watford), they need to win their final game against Everton and hope Watford don’t pick up another point to stand any chance of surviving.
Villa are also 3 points from safety but crucially, they have 2 games to play against an in-form Arsenal side and a surely safe West Ham. Watford has the toughest run-in on paper with their final 2 fixtures being played against Man City and then Arsenal.
Goal difference could come into play if the 3 teams finish the season on the same number of points. As it stands, Villa and Bournemouth are on -27, but Villa’s ahead in the table due to scoring 2 more goals (39 v 37).
Watford are 4 goals better off on -23. Currently, Watford has a +3 points advantage and a +4 goal differential. They will want to avoid losing heavily in their next game to Man City to preserve that advantage.
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An interesting prelude to this final week is the news over the weekend that Watford sacked their manager, Nigel Pearson. It seems very ill-timed and it could be catastrophic if the Hornets end up getting relegated in their final 2 games,
These two fixtures may have to be played without their talisman and captain Troy Deeney, who came off early in their last game and was seen nursing an injured knee with an ice pack. Losing his goals, leadership, and cleverness would be an almighty blow, especially as the alternatives, Andre Gray and Danny Welbeck do not score lots of goals themselves.
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Last weekend’s events with the turmoil at Watford and also Bournemouth losing a key game is sure to give Villa fresh impetus to kick on and continue their upward momentum garnered from encouraging displays against Palace and Everton.
Winning their 2 games left may still not be enough if Watford wins either of their games, so Villa are still reliant on luck favouring them, but first and foremost they need to do their job and pick up points in their last two fixtures.