At Leicester and reasons to be optimistic

There is a theme through this blog and you don't have to dig too far to find it but many of you might not see it straight away. You see, it's optimism. And even though we are fifteenth in the table, if we played and won our two games in hand over West Ham today, we'd be in ninth place above Leicester.

Now, I know things don't happen that way and others will win and the chances of us winning two in a row, while not slim, are not nailed on. But we have to try and be optimistic. We're not getting relegated and next season is a not long away.

But the Club and owners need to make a decision and it should be a football decision. The decision the Club have to come to is about the manager managing the players he has and that includes developing them to play certain ways. It means, not just throwing money around on players when we're not seeing that much of a change to how we play.

And I've written this many times too.

It shouldn't just be about bringing in players and hoping they make things better. It has to be about the football and I'm not seeing much of a change with Gerrard if I'm honest and I'd like to see that before he gets more money. It wont be a popular opinion, but I believe it's 100% the right one.

And I'm just saying because I think it matters, the current Rangers manager has a better win rate than Gerrard, does that mean he should be someone we consider as the next manager? And finally on this, I'm not saying Gerrard isn't going to be a great manager one day, but we're not going to see that if we just give him money.

Leicester today and competition

And so I turn to the match today and well, what can I write. It's Deluded Brendan going up against a former player. It's not the blind leading the blind, but both of them know they are very lucky to be managing in the Premier League.

They can both talk a great game, but I fear there is too much talking. And it's why I have no idea what is going to happen today. We could go there and score three. We could go there and get spanked. And this is going to sound strange, I don't think it matters.

We're not going down, we'll win two or three more this season and we will be okay. I'm just going to enjoy today and hope we start to see something a little better. But if we don't, we don't need to get too worried. And on that, it's where I leave you for this morning. I need a nap but I'll be back.

Match facts from the BBC

Head-to-head

• Aston Villa are looking to complete the league double over Leicester for the first time since 2003-04.
• The Villans won 1-0 at the King Power Stadium last season courtesy of Ross Barkley's 90th minute winner. They are vying to claim back-to-back away league victories against the Foxes for the first time since 1981.

Leicester City

• Leicester have won three consecutive Premier League home matches - they have not had a better run since a seven-match streak between August and December 2019.
• The Foxes have dropped 19 points from winning positions in the Premier League this season - only Newcastle and Southampton, with 24 and 23 respectively, have worse records.
• They have only lost one of their last 14 home fixtures in all competitions - January's 3-2 defeat by Tottenham.
• Harvey Barnes has scored four goals and assisted one in his last four Premier League games against Aston Villa.

Aston Villa

• Aston Villa are in danger of losing five consecutive league matches for the first time since a similar sequence in October and November which saw Dean Smith dismissed as head coach.
• Villa have not drawn a single game 0-0 this season - the last time they completed a league campaign without a goalless draw was in 1989-90.
• The Villans are the only side without an away draw in the Premier League this season.
• They have conceded 46 Premier League goals in 2021-22, equalling their final total last season.
• Philippe Coutinho has been directly involved in seven league goals in 12 appearances for Villa but only one of those has come away from home, against Leeds on 10 March.