On October 2, I concluded my column about Aston Villa with the following words.
‘They are determined to make sustained progress, so why shouldn’t their ambition be to put pressure on the top four? If I had three wishes, one would be to play a game for Dean Smith in peak physical condition. The club are moving forward. They won’t take their eye off the ball.’
I didn’t for one moment think the next time I wrote about Villa, it would be at the end of a sequence of five consecutive defeats and with Smith being sacked.