What Chance Does Sherwood Really Have?

As another week passes by, yet another defeat has been endured by the Villa faithful.

Regardless of Chelsea's poor start, most teams will head to Stamford Bridge and also come away empty handed as this season unfolds. This game alone should not define our season, or Tim Sherwood's future, and despite us in desperate need of points wherever we can muster them from right now, in all likelihood, this game was always going to prove difficult to gain anything from.

Despite this, the #SherwoodOut brigade seems unrelenting and the less realistic of us who were demanding 3 points from our visit to Chelsea have been almost vitriolic in their calling for Tim's head.

In truth, we were more than matching Chelsea right up until Brad Guzan's horrific swipe of a pass to Joleon Lescott. We had created chances and were carrying a threat and visibly growing in confidence the longer the half went on. Getting to half time without conceding would've been crucial. It was exactly the sort of game that required discipline and concentration in order to frustrate the overwhelming favourites on their own patch. It was a classic example of the type of game where the longer it goes on, the underdogs self-belief grows by the minute and they believe they can get something out of the game. This in turn promotes an improved work rate to protect what you already have and to ensure you see out the game.

With confidence at an obviously brittle level, Guzan's lack of composure and abysmal distribution (again) completely destroyed any belief our players may have assembled within those first 30 minutes. Worryingly, heads dropped instantly, and everything suddenly became much easier for the champions. An unlucky deflected second goal saw out the formality of the game and summed up our luck at the moment.

Sherwood continues to bear the brunt of the supporters frustration, but he is not being helped by the players making such basic errors and in particular Guzan when he continues to give gifts to our opponents. The concerning aspect of it is that he has been under no real pressure when making these blunders, with ample time to judge his surroundings and situation. There have been costly mistakes against Crystal Palace, Leicester, Sunderland and now Chelsea and it's not unreasonable to suggest that we should be at least 5 points better off if we had a reliable option between the sticks.

This still wouldn't represent a great start to the season and we would still be at the wrong end of things. Yet, the devastating consequences of losing these points in the manner that we have cannot be underestimated and the effect on morale drags on to the next game. It's not unreasonable to add on a couple of extra points for a team playing with confidence and without the pressure that has mounted so far also.

Crucially, Guzan's (and others, to throw in some fairness) failings have now left Sherwood facing the upcoming Swansea game knowing it's pretty much win or bust for him.

Although I wouldn't like to see Sherwood sacked after such a short period of time, if we do lose again this weekend, a record of 8 losses in our first 10 league games will not be acceptable. Put simply, Aston Villa must win this game.

But that seems incredibly unlikely at this time due to several other factors also.

There is a horrible uncertainty surrounding Villa at the moment with many rumours and conflicting stories circulating, and this may go some way to explaining our poor start. The emergence of rumours of a clash regarding player recruitment policy has come as a surprise to me as I was firmly under the impression that Sherwood had scouted and hand-picked each one of our purchases this summer. He can even be quoted as saying 'These are my players now, the buck stops with me. There are no excuses'. However suggestions now are that this isn't quite the full story and that Paddy Reilly, Hendrik Almstadt and Tom Fox have had more of a say than originally first thought. Nobody is quite sure at the moment which players have been Sherwood's choice and the rumour mill went into overdrive with a decision to start Kieran Richardson ahead of Jordan Amavi last weekend which bore some unsavoury reaction on social media. Along with the foremost suggestion that this was a completely harebrained decision (although if the plan was to shut out and frustrate Chelsea, I can personally see some logic in this choice, as I do think Amavi leaves us exposed defensively at times), the other implication was that Sherwood was making a point of leaving Amavi out (along with Jordan Veretout) as these were the players that weren't his choice. I find this far-fetched and would be amazed to learn that Sherwood picked his team in this manner. Yet the fact is that the vagueness surrounding our players remains and we do not know who is responsible for bringing them into the club.

The whole '2 games to save himself' rumour, wherever it has started from, has created tremendous pressure and also given fans a viable option to turn on Sherwood. A definitive club statement should've been issued to end speculation and back the manager straight away, however short term it may turn out to be. The uncertainty drips down to the players and the fans and it's another example of just how lacking Villa have become in conducting things off the field. It's such a poor state of affairs to let this continue and rumble on, and is nothing short of a joke. Sherwood has tried his best to deflect this, and his statement regarding the fans 'singing my name three weeks ago, and they will be in another three weeks time' is admirable and a brilliant reminder of the charisma of the man.

However, there usually is no smoke without fire and it is clear all is not well at Villa Park amongst the hierarchy. If there are disagreements on recruitment selection, then the effects of this on the 'unwanted' players is obvious. That said, Sherwood hasn't particularly frozen out any one of the summer signings.

Nevertheless, it is clear that he is irked by aspects behind the scenes at the club, and it is clear that things are not running smoothly. Even down to the petty squabble with taking Stan Collymore's matchday column away from him, everything smacks of a club that is in disarray from the very top to the very bottom. No wonder that Sherwood's passion and enthusiasm is being drained noticeably week by week. And that is a shame, as he was the sole reason that Villa Park came alive again at the end of last season.

Sherwood seems to be in a position where he is unable to rely on the board, has error prone players and has lost a huge section of the fans. That doesn't bode well for a game where he is probably going to need a win to save his job.

@lovespud83