Blog: The only way is up for Aston Villa

Yazz sang 'The Only Way Is Up' during the 1990s, but can Aston Villa start to climb the table?

With promoted Watford next for Aston Villa, the assumption is that the boys in claret and blue will come away with the points.

However, if there's anything that can be learned from this season, it's that nothing can be taken for granted, writes blogger Matthew Turvey.

Under Quique Sanchez Flores, Watford are currently the highest placed of the promoted teams, and a full seven places higher than Villa.

While the usual assumption is that the promoted teams will be those who struggle, Watford have shown that a lack of fear and a little bit of flair can take you a long way in the top-flight.

The issue for Villa is that fear is an entrenched emotion at the club. Fear of relegation, fear of financial collapse and a seemingly regular fear of holding on to the ball.

Perhaps that fear is generated by a desire to get the ball forwards, as though kicking a ball 50 yards up the pitch is, in some way, preferable and better long term than retaining possession.

Villa, as a whole, have problems that seem difficult to shake off. For example, they play with a stressed mentality.

It's like a man who, while rich, has a ton of outgoings, concerned that any one wrong move and they will find themselves in a mountain of debt and close to total collapse.

In late 2015 and, with Villa staring relegation in the face, the fear is starting to feel more like a daunting reality with fans going through the grief cycle.

It's darting from denial "We'd never go down!" to anger "We're Aston Villa, for God's sake!", to bargaining "Please let us stay up, even if it is for one more season."

The most severe stage is depression "We're going down then…", to acceptance "Oh well, here we are."

Perhaps acceptance is a premature attitude given that there is still much to play for, but the feeling is there that this may well be the season.

From poor performances to players ending up in the press for the wrong reasons, there's certainly a level of logic to those who consider this to be the season that Villa go down.

What matters now is that Villa must - one way or another - find a way to get back on track.

Playing Watford arguably gives them the best chance of the next three games although, as stated previously, there are no certainties in the game.

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Those at the bottom often find themselves on the wrong side of luck, as circumstances favour the other team.

Overall, the saddest part is that, at one point, Villa were a massively successful club.

That was admittedly that was when men walked around with epic beards, and not in the context of being a hipster in 2015.

Now, despite their fantastic support and well loved stadium, the club find themselves an insipid group compared to those that played in claret and blue during the early days of the Premier League.

It was a time where Shaun Teale, Paul McGrath, Dalian Atkinson and Kevin Richardson were in their pomp and almost took the title.

Reminiscing, however, has little value if the club are to survive. With hard work, boss Remi Garde may well drag the Villans off the bottom of the table.

It will take time and a considerable amount of effort. No matter the result on Saturday, the club will remain bottom.

You can follow Matt Turvey's regular opinions at his own site twww.astonvillalife.com, via the site's Twitter account @astonvillalife, or via his own Twitter account @mturvey_star.