jayEm

I feel like Chelsea are conspiring against us. They thrash us in our worst ever loss and then give three points and huge confidence to our rivals. Now they play Southampton on Saturday.

Oh dear. I don't feel so good about this now.

This. There are plenty of bright patches among the clouds.

Even though we only managed a point today, I feel more optimistic about this season. These cup games could be a good chance for the team to regain confidence going into the Southampton match.

Didn't watch the match so I can't comment on performances. Gutted that we conceded so late, but I would have taken a point before the match so got to be happy.

I hope that just scoring, especially after going down a goal, will have some effect on the player's confidence. I have no idea how this one will finish.

Just to score today would be good enough for me.

Be interesting to see when Bent is back in the squad, he actually played pretty well against Norwich. I had favoured Benteke, but having seen his last few performances a change might be necessary. Getting Vlaar and Gabby back is crucial, hopefully they'll play by the 12th.

Offer me a draw and I'd bite your hand off. Unfortunately Swansea are on form at the moment so the result seems inevitable. I just hope we can score, that might give the players some confidence back.

The Chelsea game seems to have been the catalyst for all this. You wonder what might have happened had Torres not pinched that early header?

Southampton home is 12th Jan, Reading away is March 9th and QPR home is the next Saturday. Those two weekends will be crucial. Wigan away is the last day of the season- I don't fancy playing them for survival so hopefully we'd be safe by then. Those are the big ones that I can see.

I think people are being overly negative here (though I guess it's better than being positive and then dissapointed?). There's no point denying that relegation is a possibility after yesterday, but there's still a transfer window to come and a few experienced heads to return from injury (ie. Vlaar). And we're not even in the relegation zone yet! Some good experience added to steady the team in January, a relatively painless run of fixtures up until March and a return to the type of performances we saw against Norwich and Liverpool would see us safe this year. This isn't to suggest that I'm happy with the way the club is going at the moment- I don't think any Villa fan could be- but all is not lost yet.