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Well done Tim Sherwood. You saved Aston Villa from the brink of disaster and you did it in style.

Losing 6-1 to Southampton on Saturday was not in the script but that it was enough to guarantee Premier League survival reflects the hard work that was done previously.

Avoiding relegation should not warrant a celebration but because the club was in such a dark place before you arrived we’re collectively tipping our hat to you for the intervention.

Your brief was simple: Keep Villa in the Premier League this season. Fans tell me that you’ve also done something else - you’ve given them their Aston Villa back.

Below are some of the questions he was asked on his first official day in charge and an evaluation on whether he’s answered them efficiently.

How are you going to drag this club out of the bottom three?

“We will play with less fear. I think the team looks a bit tentative. We need to get Christian Benteke in the game more.

"There’s a little bit of apprehension around the place. They need to play with a bit more confidence then everything will be fine.”

MISSION COMPLETED

How many points do you need?

“I want six wins, that will take us to 40 points, although I don’t think we will need that many to be safe.”

ALMOST COMPLETE (Villa need to beat Burnley to meet Sherwood’s demands)

What would a win at White Hart Lane mean?

“I’ll be excited to go back there but I’ll only enjoy going back there if we win. I think it’s been a tough ground for Aston Villa but we’ve got to get those tough grounds out of our mind.

"It’s a clean slate now and a new opportunity for those players and for myself and just try and accumulate as many points as we can – and that includes beating Tottenham.”

MISSION COMPLETED

Will you stick to your attacking philosophy?

“When I took over at Tottenham the brief from Daniel Levy was, ‘can we be a bit more attractive and can we score a few more goals?’ - I ticked that box.

"I used Adebayor as the catalyst for that and we pretty much revolved all our play around him and it’s possible it could be similar here. I will send out attacking teams whenever we play.”

MISSION COMPLETED

What will you do to get the best out of Benteke?

“He probably needs a goal for his confidence. If he scores goals that will breed confidence and more will follow. It’s not a one-man team.

"He needs to recapture the form that we all know because all the best clubs in the world were after him. He will need to be helped out by the rest of the squad.

"They need to step up and provide the service to help him. We know what threat he will be.”

MISSION COMPLETED

How will you deal with the other under-performers?

“You have to talk to them. Some people might have played well and need to be patted on the back. Some people need a kick up the backside at the right time and I need to be that person to be able to do that.

"Everyone in the squad has got an important part to play. There won’t be anyone who is not included in my plans. It’s a fresh start for everyone.

"Whether the previous manager liked them or he didn’t, it doesn’t matter to me. They know to prove themselves on the training field because I need to see them train well and see what they produce.

"It’s a jigsaw you put together when you pick a team and you look at the opposition and think, ‘Is this going to give us the best opportunity to play?’.

"You have to leave out a lot of players doing that but that doesn’t mean they’re finished. You might leave them out for two weeks and they start getting a bit disgruntled but it doesn’t mean they’re finished.

"You can bring them back because there might be that time at the end of the season when they need to come back in and do a job.

MISSION COMPLETED (although Carles Gil, Aly Cissokho and Andreas Weimann might argue otherwise)

Will Jack Grealish get a chance in the starting XI?

"I know him from youth football. I haven’t seen him on the training field.

"I know he is a talented boy and potentially one of the best young talents and he’s in the first team squad at the moment. I am very excited to have a look at him and learn more about him.”

MISSION COMPLETED

How will you promote the youth?

“The long–term view for the club is hopefully to develop their talent, but you can’t do that if there’s no talent there in the first place. I’m not sure what’s there at the moment. I will have a good look. That’s for a later date.

"The priority is winning games now. I will be watching all the youth games, as I always did, because I like watching matches, and looking at players who are ready to develop because you have to watch them over a long period of time.

"I won’t be thrusting them into the first team now because it is a pressurised situation. You do need that wee bit of experience. The youth have to be good enough in the first place.

"When I look at players I look at them on an even keel, there is no preferential treatment to the players who are bought and there’s no preferential treatment for the young kids.

"I treat them on a level playing field. If they are good enough they get an opportunity to play.”

WORK IN PROGRESS