There is not a lot to say about the rest of this season other than we do have something to aim for and that is getting 12 points, once that is achieved we can sit back and relax.
There are some who now we are relegated, talk about preparing for next season by dropping those who will not be with us in the Championship, personally I don't see any point in this, at least not until those 12 points have been reached.
It is bad enough as it is, so to play the final games without Aaron Ramsdale, Kyle Walker-Peters, Mateus Fernandes, Tyler Dibling and perhaps even Taylor Harwood- Bellis would make a poor team even worse and make the agony of watching them an even worse ordeal than it has been for the last 8 months or so, is anyone seriously suggesting dropping Aaron Ramsdale for Alex McCarthy !!!
The problem last Saturday was exposed for all to see, you couldn't really argue much with the team selection, 1 or 2 players perhaps aside, but the fact is we are toothless up front, what other side would send out their top scorer on loan when we are still fighting to stay up, as we did with Adam Armstrong, that was perhaps the legacy that Ivan Juric left us, a squad with it's spirit taken away.
You couldn't say that the team that played Villa lacked spirit, but they did lack class and we paid dearly after 70 minute spell in which we had no outlet going forward.
I therefore don't expect Simon Rusk to make many changes for the game against the Hammers but I would like to see either Armel Bella=Kotchap or Nathan Wood come in for Jack Stephens & Tyler Dibling replace Tall Paul Onuauchu & finally perhaps Flynn Downes also back in, perhaps for Sulemana..
Rusk needs to get the right balance and that means bringing back Adam Lallana and Charlie Taylor to the bench, against Vila the bench included two right backs and two central defenders, that was quite puzzling.
The problem was once we brought on fresh legs, not for the first time this season we went to pot.
Having said all this, this is one of the games we should targeting to pick up a point of three , West Ham start the day 4th from bottom after a shocking run of form since Xmas, since they beat us on Boxing Day, they have won just 3 games in the Premier League , drawn 3 and lost 8 out of 14 games.
That is not much better than us and that gives us hope that perhaps with the crowd a little restless at how their season has petered out, that we could just catch them on a bad day.
But they are a hard side to beat, most of their defeats have been by the odd goa, including last week at Anfield were they equalised late on and then conceded the winner to Liverpool just minutes later.
So we can go up the London Stadium with at least some hope that we could sneak something.
However if we are to do so, we need a good strong solid performance that harks back to Simon Rusk's first away game in charge when he took the team for the trip to Fulham and he set out a solid side that fully deserved a point.
A point would be good enough to equal Derby's unwanted record and that would be a step forward.
This season isn't over yet, we need to hit that 12 point mark before we start to look till next season, even if it is only for pride than nothing else, but till we do that, lets forget about giving youngsters a chance etc and utilise the experience we have in the squad and play our best side.