What keeps the mid-tablers out of their flip-flops now?

The season is reaching its crescendo. We have a fantastic title battle, a host of teams fighting for European places and others doing all they can to avoid the nightmare of actually winning some matches in the Championship next season.

But for the teams in mid-table, how can they retain their motivation after the last international break? We look at why it isn’t time to get the flip-flops out just yet…

Aston Villa: Anyone who witnessed Steven Gerrard taking his anger out on Des Kelly at the weekend will have got the memo that he will not let Aston Villa’s season drift to its conclusion. These final matches will be vital for Gerrard to establish a clear strategy so they have a settled system going into next season. There have been flashes of brilliance since he joined, but like his fellow mid-table colleagues, the challenge has been finding any kind of consistency. Consistency of selection and choosing his favoured number 10 may be a start.

For the players, there can be no (ahem) slips in standards. Villa have already been linked with a £60m bid for Kalvin Phillips and will spend heavily again this summer to try and avoid this list next season. Gerrard has a plethora of attacking options and it is time for Emi Buendia, Leon Bailey and Danny Ings to ensure they aren’t used in the same breath as Gareth Bale’s ‘replacements’ at Spurs.

I would probably avoid playing the injury card too…

Leicester City: Brendan Rodgers could be forgiven for wanting this season to end. They may not have been given the same headline space, but Leicester are the 2021/22 version of 2020/21 Liverpool. Their injury record has been absolutely horrendous. It seems that every time they get a key player fit (Wesley Fofana), another suffers a bad injury