With Aston Villa’s chances of staying in the Premier League becoming increasingly unlikely, he focus should shift to making a solid run in the FA Cup.
It has been 20 years since the Villans last won a major trophy, thrashing Leeds United 3-0 at the old Wembley in the 1996 League Cup Final. The Claret and Blues won the trophy for the fifth time, thanks to goals from Savo Milošević, Ian Taylor, and Dwight Yorke. It was the second time they had won the then-called Coca-Cola Cup in the 90s, after beating Manchester United 2-1 in 1994.
Since then Aston Villa have reach three finals, losing all of them, most recently trampled 4-0 at the hands of Arsenal in the 2015 FA Cup Final. A 1-0 loss to Chelsea in 2000 FA Cup Final and a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Manchester United in 2010 League Cup Final also haunt the memories of the Villa Park faithful.
On Saturday they travel to high-flying League 2 side Wycombe Wanderers in the third round of the FA Cup. It will be a relief for fans, although they can hardly expect a repeat of the 8-3 victory when these two sides last met in the third round of the League Cup in 2005. A 1-0 win is rare enough for Villa these days.
A positive showing would not only please the fans, but it would very much help to boost morale in the Villa camp. It is probably needed seeing as the team are rock bottom of the Premier League with no hope of staying up.
Which is why Remi Garde may as well focus on ending Villa’s 20-year trophy drought, although the resulting Europa League campaign would not be very beneficial when they are playing among the Championship next season.
While it sounds like a far-fetched suggestion, the Villans now have nothing to lose and capturing their eighth FA Cup win would surely soften the blow of being relegated from the top-flight of English football.
Right now the fans have got nothing to look forward to, an FA Cup would replace the void left by the abysmal Premier League campaign.
An FA Cup win while being relegated would mimic their rivals Birmingham City, who won the League Cup in 2011 only to face the drop in May.
Realistically Villa will struggle past Wycombe and then draw a fellow Premier League team (for now), where they will get knocked out of the competition, only adding to their 2015-16 woes.
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