AvonVillain

Take out a crucial part of your spine, and EVERY club suffers. In our case, it's the difference between finishing 15th/16th, or being relegated.

I think it boarders upon the ridiculous to not consider these 3 injuries. Season changing. Smith gets a free pass from me because of this. To watch as he swaps two non-scoring strikers game after game is tortuous. Only Norwich have got a more pathetic attack, and just look at their point haul.

Yes.

If Watford manage to stay up this season, at our expense, then the board will be praised for acting decisively. Personally, I'm glad we've stuck with DS, regardless of what happens.

... not an argument, just a point of view. That being that a 34 point return from 38 games is really, truly miserable. If it's good enough, and if we can do it, then great! I suppose a different way of looking at it is, is it really worth being as consistently horrible as we have been over the course of a season, merely to survive on the final day? Would you take the same outcome next season, and the one after that? Personally, I'd prefer to be back in the Championship rather than disgracing the PL like this. I'm almost embarrassed that we can be this awful, and still have a chance of survival.

But, that's a moot point, and dare I say, a Dion Dublin-esque observation. If we were offered to stay up at the start of the season would we take it?? Well, obviously... There isn't anything hypothetical about that. The point of the hypothetical "if you were offered X" is that you are gambling on an unknown outcome. So I think it's perfectly reasonable to state that any offer of a final point haul of 34 points over a 38 game season is a dreadful outcome. You would never take that gamble, but back the team to perform much better. I certainly would have at the start of the season. Anyway, 34 points might still relegate us.

I think if someone offered us 34 points to finish on at the start of the season, nobody would take it. It's a terrible return.

It would be pathetic. But it would also be the only bit of luck we've had all season!!

1 - 0 would do it if Watford lose 3 - 0 to Man City.

Christ, just realised we could climb out of the bottom 3 by Tuesday night!

Watford sack Pearson! They are completely finished now. SURELY we can climb above them??

Wow. Looks as though every team down there are doing their best to keep the Villa up! Every team except for the Villa, that is.

This has probably been said already, but, again, all we need is for Bournemouth not to win. Can't ask for more. So many results have gone our way since the resumption...

Honestly mate, what on earth are you talking about? The same manager who took us out of the Championship at the first time of asking! Jesus.

+ John McGinn. Dreadful luck for a newly promoted team to lose 3 key players for a large part of the season. With these 3, I would argue we would be comfortably mid-table, and all this Dean Smith talk would be much more positive.

Even after last night, or probably because of it, think I'm a bit more resigned to us going down now. Can we really beat Arsenal? Even if we get a draw we're then looking at stopping West Ham scoring, whilst scoring at least 2 or more ourselves to take all the points. After all that improbability, we're now looking at Bournemouth who are in really good form not piling the pressure on and gaining more points than us from the final two. In retrospect, I'm not certain we as a club, and us as fans, really believed we would be this bad or the season this tortuous. It seemed to only click that we were in a perilous position and perhaps we should play as a team during the last 5 games. I think the mentality of us being a bigger club than some of our direct rivals has probably been our biggest problem over the last 10 years. The fact that we're still in with a chance of staying up after being as consistently poor as we've been casts doubt on the idea that the Premier League is a huge step up in quality from the Championship. Just look at how well Sheff. United have done simply by organising themselves properly over the course of a season. I can't remember a season where so many teams have looked so mediocre, and this perhaps points to the reason Liverpool walked the title, and another bitter pill to swallow. We couldn't stay up in perhaps the poorest Premier League since its inception. 18. Watford 19. Villa 20. Norwich

If we do somehow manage to take it to the final match on that fateful (hopefully) Sunday in 10 days time, imagine what it'll be like on these boards!?

Watford to lose next three. Bournemouth to draw next two. Villa to do what they've barely managed all season. There's still hope, just.

Season of what ifs, I think.

We are showing fight, we're just not very good. Watford to lose every game. Villa to pick up 4 more points. *runs*

Not sure I can listen to the rest of this game.

KONSA!!!

"You sense that Davis will cause more problems than Samatta did" says the commentator. So frustrating.

Impossible to understand. Genuinely... Davis offers SOMETHING. Samatta, nothing. We're throwing this opportunity away.

You have to question the wisdom of continuing with Samatta in such a vital game as this.