It's time for Tom Fox to end this experiment: Aston Villa lose to Stoke

The last time we started a season this badly, we were relegated and it's not nice to write this next part, but it's now time that this experiment was cut short. When Sherwood was appointed, you'll remember I was surprised. So surprised that I actually backed it to not happen on some website and lost a fair chunk of change.

It was because we were in trouble last season and I didn't for the life of me think that the CEO would make such an important decision that carried so much risk. Sure, it paid off, but lets be honest, we only finished one place higher than when he took over.

And I'll throw my hands up, I also wrote that evening when the speculation started that I'd be all for Sherwood getting a crack this season, if we hired someone to just keep us up, but with eight games gone this season we're in the relegation zone with half the points of the team above us. But you know all this, you don't need me to remind you.

But I'm afraid to say it but I think someone with some decision making capability at the club need to understand the position we are in and that it's bad. And again; the last time we started this badly we were relegated. This should be something that starts alarm bells ringing.

The irony is we lost because of another experiment today

If you didn't watch the match, let me summarise it for you with the most important point. Sherwood started with three central defenders in Crespo on the right, Richards in the middle and Lescott on the left.

He then had Hutton and Amavi playing as wing backs. We started poorly and had little to offer going forward apart from when Richards brought it forward (yes, Richards bringing it forward). But then in the second half, Tim changed it all around by bringing on Grealish for Lescott. He moved Crespo to play on the left hand side of centre back.

And when Stoke scored, it was because our two centre backs had just spent the first 45 minutes playing with another centre back and there was enough space to park a bus in the space that Arnautovic was allowed to run into from a Glen Johnson pass. I know they're professionals and they should be able to cope, but they've just played 45 minutes in a very different formation. My point is, we shouldn't have started the way we did - it was an experiment that should have been used in pre-season, not the Premier League.

But after Stoke scored and when the manager brought on Gil and Ayew, we started to look better. We even had two corners after Westwood went off that Grealish and Veretout took and while we didn't score from them, they looked so much better. And yes, it's me bringing up the Westwood corner thing again; why oh why does he take them?

Boos at Villa Park

Boos rang out at Villa Park on the final whistle and I'm going to end the post as I started it. The last time we had such a bad start to the season, we went down and if Tom Fox is reading this; don't let it happen again.