Villa buy time, at least, for a week

By Robson Sharuko

Aston Villa will not be relegated this week and, in their desperate fight against the chop, that’s something to provide a little bit of comfort.

Dean Smith and his men bought themselves some time, to keep fighting, and keep dreaming, when they beat Crystal Palace 2-0 at Villa Park on Sunday.

This means Marvelous Nakamba and his Villa teammates will, at least, spend another week as English Premiership players, irrespective of how results come out this week when Match Day 36 fixtures are played between today and Friday.

“Massive win today for the team and we will keep on fighting,’’ Nakamba said on Twitter on Sunday, shortly after their priceless victory over Palace.

The relief, in the Villa camp, was palpable which, of course, is understandable.

This was their first league win since January and Trezeguet’s opening goal was their first in about five-and-half hours since his Egyptian counterpart, Ahmed Elmohamady, scored against Newcastle on June 24.

“Big win today, focus now turns to Thursday (when they visit Goodson Park for a date against Everton),’’ tweeted defender Ezri Konsa.

“We keep fighting until the end.’’

Goalkeeper Pepe Reina, who kept his 135th clean sheet in the English Premiership, was also in combative mood after the victory over Palace.

“We’ll keep fighting until the end very last second of the last game, no matter what,’’ the experienced Spaniard tweeted.

The odds are still heavily staked against Villa who might still go down, even if they win all their three remaining league games, in this campaign.

However, by winning on Sunday, Nakamba and his colleagues ensured they won’t be relegated this week because, even if they lose on Thursday, the reality is they will still be hanging on.

They are three points from safety whose last slot, right now, is occupied by Watford, who have the same number of points (34), as West Ham.

Both sides won at the weekend with Watford showing tremendous fighting spirit, to come from behind and edge Newcastle 2-1, through two Troy Deeney penalties, while West Ham turned on the style in a four-goal thrashing of relegated Norwich.

Because West Ham host Watford in Match Day 36, on Friday, this means Villa cannot be relegated even if they lose their next match against Everton on Thursday.

Whatever the result in the West Ham/Watford match will mean, in some way, they will cancel out each other and Villa will still remain, with a window of hope, even if Bournemouth, who have 31 points, away to free-scoring Manchester City tomorrow.

After Everton, Villa will play Arsenal at home and West Ham away in their final two matches. Villa spent £135 million in the last English summer, as they had just 11 contracted players after their play-off victory, and hoping the arrival of these newboys would help them stay in the Premiership.

The club’s wage bill, in trying to secure promotion, constituted 175 percent of their income and Villa ran losses of about £68 million. Under current regulations, Villa are permitted £61m of allowable losses, which take into account infrastructure and academy costs, over three years. That leaves plenty of cloth to cut.

“If Villa are relegated, they will have to have an asset sale,’’ Kieran Maguire, football finance lecturer, told The Mail on Sunday newspaper last month.

“The jewel in the crown as far as they are concerned will be Jack Grealish and a lot will depend on his market valuation in the summer.

“If they get £40m to £60m for him then that will cover them in terms of financial fair play considerations in my view. He will be their get out of jail card.’’

There will also be some huge movement, within their paying personnel, with the majority of the current squad needing a review of their salaries, should they choose to stay, for the Championship adventure.

Smith believes the bonding from his decision for the players to stay at a hotel, before and after their games, has had a positive effect on them and could be crucial in their battle to try and avoid the drop.

“We’re stopping at a hotel the night before and the night after games,’’ he told the British media after the victory over Palace.

“We’ve all been together. As I’ve said before, we’re entering tournament football and we’ve made it so we’re together quite a lot.

“The analogy I used with the players was, it was a two-legged semi-final, this game and Thursday. You’ve got to go and win this first game to have a chance in the away leg.

“And, if we go and put in a performance against Everton and get the win, then we get to our two finals.

“The players know how to play under pressure, they proved that here.

“It was always going to be tough against Liverpool and Manchester United, two of the best teams in this league if not the world at the moment.

“We’ve come out of that and taken the positives from those games into this one. We are fighting for our lives, the players know what it means and they know what is at stake.’’ They have, at least, another week in the Premiership. The Herald