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Earlier this season Aston Villa’s only hope of survival was pinned on their Premier League opponents.

If three other teams under-performed more than the struggling claret and blues they might have just avoided the drop.

Former boss Paul Lambert would have argued otherwise, but that was the general feeling as a dark cloud of uncertainty surrounded Villa Park.

Tim Sherwood’s approach is clearly different.

“I can’t look at anyone else,” he says.

“I don’t worry about them.”

Instead, he sends out his Villa team to play on the front foot, regardless of the opposition.

Tim Sherwood v Paul Lambert - what the stats say

Of course he changes his tactics to deal with individual threats - we saw that when he was at Tottenham and he brought in Sandro specifically to thwart Gabby Agbonlahor as Spurs hammered Villa 3-0 in his last game in charge.

His principles are generally the same, though: Attack and cause the opposition problems.

Sherwood would prefer to win one and lose two rather than drawing three.

He admits that he was angry at himself for setting up his team to soak up pressure in the 3-1 defeat Old Trafford but made amends in the next visit to Manchester when Villa scared the life out of City and were only beaten by a last-gasp strike in the 3-2 defeat.

Other results were disastrous for Villa that weekend but Sherwood remained optimistic ahead of the Everton clash.

“I feel like I age five years every time we play so I can’t do that every time everyone else plays,” he added.

“I would drive myself mad if I focused on the other games.”

One look at his facial expressions in those closing few minutes of Saturday’s 3-2 success over the Toffees was enough to prove that.

With Sunderland and Leicester both winning, a victory for Villa was essential.

Fortunately there was no cruel twist this time around and Hull's defeat to Arsenal on Monday night now leaves Villa in a much healthier position.

Survival is all in their own hands and Sherwood wouldn’t want it any other way.