Aston Villa plunged closer to relegation from the Premier League as they lost 1-0 to Swansea City at the Liberty Stadium.

After competing well for 53 minutes, Villa switched off defensively and allowed Federico Fernandez to bundle home from close range.

The goal drained all confidence out of the visitors, who have lost their last six games and are 12 points from safety with seven games remaining.

Meanwhile, Swansea have now won five of their 10 games since Francesco Guidolin’s appointment and pull 11 points clear of the relegation zone.

Guidolin was back in the dugout after missing the last three games with a chest infection, but his presence on touchline didn’t have an impact on his players as Joleon Lescott and Jordan Ayew both fired off target from presentable openings for Villa in the early stages.

Remi Garde’s men, who are without an away win since their opening day victory over Bournemouth, looked sharp with and without the ball as Swansea struggled to get their passing game going.

Good chances were few and far between though. Ayew found space in box on 40 minutes but was denied by a fantastic saving tackle from Ashley Williams.

The Swansea skipper was at it again minutes later to head a Rudy Gestede bicycle kick over the crossbar.

Villa fans would have been hoping their team could kick-on after the break but despite having looked comfortable defensively, one mistake cost them dear.

Good chances were few and far between though. Ayew found space in box on 40 minutes but was denied by a fantastic saving tackle from Ashley Williams.

The Swansea skipper was at it again minutes later to head a Rudy Gestede bicycle kick over the crossbar.
Villa fans would have been hoping their team could kick-on after the break but despite having looked comfortable defensively, one mistake cost them dear.
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*The Guardian*
Sunday, 20 March 2016

*Aston Villa set to bring Rémi Garde’s reign to swift end*

Aston Villa are set to call time on Rémi Garde’s troubled reign as manager this week as the club begin the task of preparing for life in the Championship.

Garde has cut a forlorn figure for weeks and was expected to depart in the summer but a new-look Villa board is ready to accelerate its plans and sack the Frenchman after accepting there is nothing to be gained by going through the motions until the end of the season.

Garde has won only two of his 20 Premier League games in charge since replacing Tim Sherwood at the start of November, failing to have any positive impact on a team that had only four points to their name when he took over.

At the time of his unveiling Garde spoke about the positive vibe he felt after speaking to Randy Lerner and listening “to the way he wanted to fix this bad situation”, but his relationship with the Villa owner has unravelled.

Steve Hollis, Villa’s new chairman, chose his words carefully when asked about Garde’s future at the club’s training ground on Friday and was not prepared to give any guarantees that the former Lyon manager would be given the job of trying to win promotion from the Championship next season.

Working closely with David Bernstein and Mervyn King, two recent additions to the board, and advised by Brian Little, a former manager and player at Villa, Hollis is conducting a thorough investigation into every aspect of the club. It has not taken them long, however, to realise that Garde looks and sounds like a broken man and with relegation a formality, that it would be in everyone’s best interests to go their separate ways.

It is understood that Garde and Lerner barely communicate and things do not seem much better between the Villa manager and some of his players.

Garde strayed into dangerous territory when he publicly questioned his players’ commitment last month, even if there was some substance to his comments.

He has chopped and changed the team without success and the impression within the club is that players feel resentment rather than determination to prove him wrong once they have been left out.

Garde feels badly let down by the club’s failure to back him in the January transfer window, when Villa failed to make a single signing at a time when they were bottom and in desperate need of new faces.

From that moment on the Frenchman felt that it was a matter of time before he would be out of a job and it is believed that he conveyed that message to Tom Fox, who resigned from his post as CEO on Thursday.

Fox’s departure came 48 hours after Hendrik Almstadt left as sporting director and Garde’s imminent departure is unlikely to be the last in a cull that Hollis hopes will provide the opportunity to re-energise a club who have been fighting relegation for six successive seasons.

Paddy Reilly, the director of recruitment and part of the old regime, is clinging on to his position for the moment.