Alan Hutton: Aston Villa must change relegation mentality
We’re delighted to welcome former Aston Villa full-back Alan Hutton as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at Villa Park.
Alan Hutton feels Aston Villa need a mentality change after spending far too long near the bottom end of the Premier League in recent campaigns.
Villa are currently teetering on the edge of the relegation zone in 16th position as Unai Emery was finally cleared to take charge of the team for their upcoming game against Manchester United.
Hutton has suggested Villa need to stop crumbling at times and show some consistency under their new boss.
“I think it’s that consistency which they’ve not had for a long long time,” Hutton exclusively told Villa News.
“That’s why I talk about a mentality change because they have been at the bottom of the table for a long time, especially after just being promoted. They are an ambitious club, with Christian Purslow coming out and saying this is the future of the club but everyone has to bye into it.
“There’s no point going out and being inconsistent. That’s probably the biggest change which needs to happen because they showed against Brentford the amount of talent which is within this squad.
“The Premier League is that hard, you have to be at that level every single week. They did well against Newcastle up until half time but then they just couldn’t deal with the pressure.
“It was just relentless and they crumbled after a while so that’s something Emery is going to have to fix and quickly.”
It’s a tough start for Emery who will face back-to-back league and cup fixtures against Manchester United before a trip to face Brighton before the World Cup.
The 50-year-old has to be targeting four points from his side’s next two fixtures in order to drag the Villans away from the bottom three.
In other Aston Villa news, the club are set to reject a request from this World Cup-bound nation to rest their players on the final gameweek before the break.