Former Aston Villa star and current Sky Sports pundit Lee Hendrie has made the stark claim that his old club must be looking at securing a return to the Premier League via the playoffs as he all but ruled out a top two finish.
A slow start to the campaign means that the Villans, now under the leadership of Dean Smith, are playing catch up to the rest of the sides seeking promotion from the second division.
Speaking about Villa’s hopes of sealing a top two spot for automatic promotion, Hendrie made the start claim that it already looked out of their reach and they would have to battle through the playoffs once again.
He told Sky Sports’ coverage of the clash against Leeds United at Villa Park: (23/12, 13:06): “There’s just such a big gap that’s getting bridged now.
“Personally I think they’ve got to be looking at playoffs, the fact they don’t want to go down that route is a certain fact from last season and the heartache they had.”
Opinion
With the way Villa are playing now, you would think that they would be closer than they are to the top of the table. The problem is that they did not play like this in the early stages of the campaign and as such dropped points which they would have expected to pick up. Can they catch the likes of Leeds and Norwich City at the top? As Hendrie says there is already quite the gap building between them and the rest of the table and even with regular victories the damage may well have been done by their performances in the first couple of weeks. Still, anything is possible and with the way Smith has got his team performing they could beat anyone in the league. It makes for a seriously exciting second half of the season – although Villa fans would rather avoid the playoffs after last season’s bitter disappointment.