Westwood is defiant, insisting Villa can still make a miraculous escape with seven wins, but it is not lip service when the midfielder says the situation has become life-consuming.
“Luckily I’ve got family and two young kids that do take your mind away from football but no matter where you go it’s there. Everyone is talking about the Premier League and when you go away, try and take a break, it’s hard to get away from it,” he says.
“My son Frankie is football mad, he always wants to watch Match of the Day and it’s difficult to watch it with him sometimes. We’ve been called the worst team in Premier League history and, of course, that does hurt. The facts are we’re not, we’ve got enough points to show that we’re not the worst, but it’s still not nice to hear.
“To lose any game is bad enough but to lose 6-0 against Liverpool and in front of the cameras was very hurtful. We’d said before the Liverpool game that if we won that game we’d be five points adrift, which is nothing. To lose by that scoreline was horrible.”
It was only 10 months ago that Westwood produced arguably his best performance in claret and blue, in Villa’s 2-1 win over Liverpool in the FA Cup semi-final. But this season has been an unfolding nightmare. The inquest into this season will be extensive but Villa fans will tell you this was coming. Protests are planned for Tuesday night’s game against Everton as the frustration towards owner Randy Lerner increases.
Would Westwood blame them? “It’s been like this since I joined, we’ve flirted with relegation every season. The fans pay their money and you can’t blame them for being angry. We need them to stick with us and help us over the line,” he says. “If they decide to protest, that’s up to them but we do need them. I always look at the game against Sunderland [in April 2013] where we needed to win, we beat them 6-1 and seeing Villa Park like that was incredible. It was how it should be and it’s down to us to make it like that again.”
Westwood is sitting in one of the Villa Park dressing rooms for this interview, a short walk from the tunnel which has a replica of the European Cup.
It seems unthinkable that the towering Holte End could be hosting Championship football next season, yet Villa’s home form has been poor for years, as they have taken only 80 points from the last 83 league games at Villa Park.
“It’s too nice for people to come here. That’s one of the problems. It’s a lovely big pitch and we play nice football but maybe we need to start being ugly and doing it that way. Maybe we need to make the grass longer or something, because it’s too easy for other teams.”
Westwood continues to hope of a great escape. Villa visit Stoke on Saturday eight points adrift of safety and with games against Manchester City, Spurs and Chelsea to come. But the 25-year-old has been here before and believes his experience of relegation scrapes will be vital.
“I want to prove to people I can play in this league and so do the other lads. We know we’re good enough, it’s just showing it every week,” he says. “We need another seven wins and it will be tough but we still believe.
“We’ve got what happened at Leicester [last season] to hang on to, but we’ve got to pick up points soon or it will be too late. Even if we do go down I want to be here. My contract is for another four years and I want to be part of building it back up. The staff are brilliant, it’s a massive shame that things haven’t happened.
“Hopefully it will just be a blip and we can get straight back up and turn this club into what it should be. Just look at Newcastle and West Ham, it’s not all doom and gloom. Maybe it’s time to rebuild and give it another go.”
Ashley Westwood was rewarding Matthew Morley, who secured the work experience of a lifetime at Aston Villa thanks to LifeSkills, created with Barclays. For more information visit www.barclayslifeskills.com
- Telegraph