Guzan is my player of the season, Benteke knows and tip of the hat

It is easy to have an opinion on something. You could even say I've made a living on it the last ten years, but it's really important to remember that it is just opinion. And this isn't a post where I'm setting myself up to say it's just an opinion.

Sometimes we use numbers, the probability of something happening based on past events, to take educated guesses, but they are just guesses. None of us can predict the future. Only Benteke can predict the future.

But if someone keeps making the same mistakes when they have all this information to hand, then they only have themselves to blame.

Staying up

But we've not made that many mistakes this season. Sure, we've made a few and they've been big, but they were fixed. And there will be changes this summer for next season. Optimism can be breathed into Villa Park and we can now look forward to what will no doubt be a very interesting summer.

But a new season awaits and some hat tips have to be made for this season. My player of the season is Brad Guzan and I know most are going to disagree and give it to Benteke and I don't blame you, but for me, I've looked over the entire season and his head hasn't dropped, he has saved us and won us points.

I'm also a firm believer you've got to build from the back and for me, with more stability next season, with added confidence, he is going to get better and maybe even, one day, formidable. But I'll leave Guzan for now, his actions this season speak for themselves.

And we're staying up and next season will be played in the Premier League. That isn't something we have had absolute confidence in this season and there have been times, had the manager got the sack, that not many would have been surprised.

Next season is a big test for him but we've been playing much better football of late and those mistakes we made were fixed. If we start next season as we finished this one and manage to keep it up, there is bags of potential and reason to be optimistic.

Player focus

But it wouldn't be fair to leave a quip about Benteke and praise for Guzan without mentioning others and this post is confirmation that the others will get a mention over the next few days and weeks.

But there will also be some that don't get a mention, but that doesn't mean anything other than they've just not got a hat tip for this season. And you might be surprised at who does and you'll possibly disagree with what I've got to say about some, but this here is a blog all about opinion.

More later this week and we might even start a special speculation section - it's a new summer under Lambert, it might get interesting.