Jack Grealish: Belief the key factor in Aston Villa’s late push towards safety
Jack Grealish claims maintaining belief when others were writing them off was key to Villa reigniting their survival hopes.
The skipper insists players never lost hope even when they sat seven points adrift of safety less than a fortnight ago.
Villa have taken seven points from their last three matches to move out of the relegation zone on goal difference ahead of Sunday’s season-ending trip to West Ham.
Grealish said: “We all knew deep down we could do it. We had belief in the changing room and belief in the coaching staff. We all have belief in each other.
“Since we have come back we have been excellent as a group. The things fans and other people won’t see behind the scenes.
“We have come back and training has gone up a notch. Everyone realises what this means to the club.
“I think we probably deserve more points than we have. We go into the last game now with it in our hands, so fingers crossed.”
Tuesday’s 1-0 win over Arsenal saw Villa climb out of the bottom three for the first time since February and though their destiny is not entirely in their own hands, they do head to the London Stadium in pole position to secure survival.
Watford’s 4-0 hammering at the hands of Manchester City means the Hornets, who travel to Arsenal on Sunday, now have an inferior goal difference. Bournemouth, three points further back, must beat Everton and see both of their rivals to lose in order to survive.
“In the dressing room before Tuesday’s game we had that much belief if we played our way we could get a win, and we did that,” said Grealish.
“It’s a game of fine margins, we had a few chances where we could have put the game to bed and then they go and hit the post.
“But I think it was about time something went our way. Someone asked me before the game if I would have taken a draw, to go into the last game to try and get a win.
“I said no chance, we wanted to win on Tuesday and that is what we did.
“It is something the club needed and we needed as a team. It gives us hope now going into the last game.”
Grealish continued: “Everything we have got so far since coming back has been deserved. There were things we were struggling with before the break, set-pieces and conceding goals.
“Now we have come back we have kept three clean sheets, we have scored a lot of goals from set-pieces and we are defending set-pieces well.
“It shows the people behind the scenes, the manager and the coaching staff, have all been working hard. It has paid off.”
