I did write something about needing to win or it feeling too much like before COVID-19, but before COVID-19 we would have probably lost that. And even though we got lucky that Hawk Eye stopped working, sometimes you need luck.
That was a tune change.
Don't get me wrong, I'm bracing for relegation, but there were glimmers of hope in that game. But with Chelsea coming up tomorrow, Newcastle on Wednesday and Wolves next weekend, I don't see it. I want to be proven wrong, but I just don't see it.
But it shouldn't be this difficult and if we think it's difficult now, it's going to be harder next season if we do go down. If we do go down, we're losing the likes of McGinn, Grealish, Luiz and Mings and they are our only Premier League quality players. If we go back down and Dean Smith doesn't start to approach games differently, we're going to stay there or the very best, bounce between the Premier League and the Championship.
But there were glimmers that suggest maybe we're going to get better at getting forward more quickly. And I did like it that Keinan Davis started and I'm convinced he's going to be a very good players for us one day, but he needs the games and he needs the support and I believe he'll one day be Premier League quality, if given the time and that support.
But if we can create those opportunities where runs can be made and players can get in behind the Chelsea back four, we might just create a few more chances and we might just get a goal. If we can get one, maybe we can keep Chelsea from creating those opportunities where they get players behind our back four.
We'll find out tomorrow, but people, start bracing.
Match facts from the BBC
Head-to-head
- Aston Villa have lost nine of the past 10 league meetings, winning the other at home in March 2014.
- Chelsea's current five-match winning league streak against Villa is their best in this fixture.
- This is the 50th Premier League fixture between the clubs. Chelsea lead by 25 wins to Villa's 12, with 12 draws.
Aston Villa
- Dean Smith's side have taken just two points from their last 21 games against the established top-six Premier League sides since beating Spurs away in April 2015.
- Villa's midweek draw against Sheffield United ended a run of four straight league defeats.
- They can keep consecutive top-flight clean sheets for the first time since goalless home draws against Sunderland and Crystal Palace in December 2014 and January 2015.
- A win on Sunday would ensure Villa become just the second team in top-flight history to win a match on all seven days of the week within a season, emulating Tottenham in 1986-87.
- Their only victory in the past eight league fixtures came at home to Watford on 21 January.
Chelsea
- Chelsea haven't won any of their four Premier League away games in 2020 (D3, L1), having won seven of the previous nine.
- The Blues have not won a Premier League match outside of London since beating Watford on 2 November.
- They could register successive Premier League victories for only the second time this season. They won six in a row between September and November.
- Frank Lampard' side have conceded 39 league goals in the current campaign, as many as in the whole of 2018-19.
- Chelsea are vying to keep consecutive league clean sheets for the first time this season.
- Lampard only won on four of his 16 Premier League visits to Villa Park as a player (D8, L4). He scored twice in a 2-1 victory on his last appearance there with Chelsea to become the club's all-time leading goalscorer.
- Olivier Giroud has scored eight goals in his last six games against Aston Villa in all competitions, all while playing for Arsenal.
- Tammy Abraham scored 26 goals in 40 appearances on loan at Villa last season.