I've written many times that I will take a boring one nil win week in week out. You see, I look at football as a game that is simply about winning. Sure, pretty football is a bonus but the end result is three points. But some Aston Villa fans. No, scrap that, some football fans, are never happy.
We've won five out of six games and some are still not happy with the performances. Let me ask you this; would you rather play well and dominate but lose or play like we've played and win?
It's not a serious question and I'll tell you why; change takes time and lets be clear, Bruce has never had his sides playing attractive free flowing football. Why anyone would think it is going to come now at Aston Villa surprises me. Bruce will get us promoted and had he been given the job at the right time it would have happened this season. But he isn't going to get us playing like Barcelona.
Bruce gets teams promoted from the Championship. Bruce is a specialist manager and as Aston Villa fans we have to accept that - not start moaning because the football isn't great after we've just won our fifth game from six matches.
A new hope
And with that written, I do want to write something about the gap between us and sixth place because right now it's 11 points and there are 24 points to play for. It's not impossible but it would mean a lot of things having to happen for us and I'm not even going to entertain the possibility unless we win our next three or four matches. But we can't not entertain the possibility because we do have Steve Bruce and this is what he does.
But, if you want my advice, now would be the time to hope that things end well and we are prepared for next season. This isn't the time to be getting overly optimistic. I accepted we'd be sat here for another season when we appointed Di Matteo and I'll wait to see what we and the relegated sides do in the summer before I allow optimism back in. But you can get excited early if you want - just try to remember it's Steve Bruce we've got as manager.
But there is a little part of me that wants to believe. I mean, five wins out of six is pretty impressive.
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