New Aston Villa manager Tim Sherwood will now be well aware he has a huge task on his hands to guide the club to safety this season. Currently second from bottom with just five wins to their name after losing to Stoke City at the weekend, Villa are facing the very real prospect of being involved in a relegation battle.

The EPL odds with bet365 are worth checking out to see how the likes of Steve Bruce's Hull City, Leicester and QPR will shape up as Villa's possible relegation rivals. If Villa are to survive, there are plenty of areas that need to improve almost instantly if the club are going to avoid slipping out of the Premier League for the first time in their history.

Home Form

Paul Lambert's tendency to try and implement a counter-attacking strategy in Villa's away games may have brought a number of impressive wins, but the club's home form under the Scot was one of the key reasons the former manager never really won over the Villa faithful. Those supporters have seen just 13 home wins from the previous 50 and Sherwood will need to give those fans something to shout about between now and the end of the season if he is going to have any chance to guiding the club to safety. With just 13 league goals to their name all season, Villa don't look capable of putting three goals past any of their opponents this season. But a handful of ugly, narrow home victories over the next few weeks could change the entire atmosphere around Villa Park at the moment.

Find Benteke's shooting boots

If the new Villa manager is going to have any hope of turning things around at his new club, then he's going to need to get the club's only genuine goalscorer firing on all cylinders again. Christian Benteke looked like one of European football's best forwards last season before suffering an Achilles injury that kept him out of the World Cup. But the Belgium international has been a shadow of his former self this season. While some have accused Benteke of not putting in the same level of effort this season as he did last year due to his desire to leave the club in the summer, Sherwood will need to make the striker realise that it really is in everyone's interest for him to rediscover his scoring boots and start going on a bit of a run of form in front of goal.

Blood the youth

Sherwood has already hinted he will be leaning towards the more experienced pros at the club to get Villa out of trouble rather than the youngsters. But the new manager could be missing a trick by not handing some of those talented teenagers at Villa Park the chance to show what they can do. If Villa do end up suffering relegation this season, those younger players are going to be key to the club's hopes of returning to the Premier League and any experience they pick up during the remainder of this season could end up being crucial to their development. The more experienced pros at the club certainly have not done anything to suggest they are going to have any better chance than the youngsters of getting enough points between now and May to survive. Sherwood should not rule out using what has been a consistently fruitful academy at Villa in recent years.