Lee Hendrie: 'Aston Villa will want to earn Premier League survival'

By Barney Corkhill, Editor | 22 March 2020

Former Aston Villa midfielder Lee Hendrie believes that Dean Smith's side will want to earn their Premier League survival rather than seeing the season cancelled.

Former Aston Villa midfielder Lee Hendrie has insisted that the club's players will want to earn their survival in the Premier League rather than seeing the campaign declared null and void.

Villa's plight has been one of the main talking points surrounding the uncertainty over the future of the 2019-20 season, which has been suspended until the end of April at the earliest due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Dean Smith's side are currently in the relegation zone and would suffer an immediate return to the Championship should it be decided that league tables should count as they stand if the season cannot be completed.

However, matters are made more complicated by the fact that Villa have a game in hand which could lift them to safety, and Hendrie believes that the players will be eager to earn their place in the top flight next term rather than seeing the season cancelled and no relegation take place.

"I feel that the lads will want to get back out there and try and get out of that relegation zone, there is no doubt about it. It has been a tough season for Aston Villa, it really has. On the flip side, they have been to a cup final with a defeat against Manchester City," Hendrie told Sky Sports News.

"The main priority this season is to stay in the Premier League. It's a massive club that has found it hard being in the Championship and getting back into the Premier League, but sitting in that relegation zone at the moment I think they will be pretty much like every Premier League club.

"They will want to see this season through and maintain Premier League status at the moment. It is going to be a difficult one but, with the game in hand [and] with the teams in and around them it could be anyone out of the bottom six. It is such a tight-knit group."

Villa lost their last five matches across all competitions before football was put on hold, but could climb up to 16th if they were to win their game in hand.