INSIDE INFO: We get the lowdown from an Aston Villa fan

You don't have to delve into the memory bank all that much to remember the last time Southampton played Aston Villa.

Before Wednesday's Capital One Cup quarter final mauling at the hands of Liverpool, Saints beat the recently Tim Sherwood-less Villains 2-1 at St. Mary's.

Since then, Villa have acquired French coach Remi Garde and their fans will be hoping the Villains earn their first victory since he took charge.

To see how he's getting on, we spoke to Villa blogger Rory Skehan of SB Nation's 7500 to Holte.

St. Mary's Musings: How did you assess Villa's performance against Saints just over a month ago?

Rory Skehan: The Capital One Cup match was a throwaway match for Villa. Kevin MacDonald was the caretaker manager who was simply a placeholder, and Villa really just needed to be booted from the Cup so they could focus their attention of Premier League survival.

The match itself? No one really knew what MacDonald was trying to do with the confusing line-up he put out, and it ended up playing out just about the way everyone thought it would, but again, none of us really cared at that point. But hey, we scored a goal!

SMM: Remi Garde has since joined Villa as manager. Have you seen any changes since he took charge?

RS: Performance wise, yes. He's getting more out of the players, and actually, in our last match against Watford, we looked barely acceptable going forward. Still, performance doesn't count for anything if you're not picking up points, and the results just haven't been there. I still think Garde was the right hire - I actually think that if we hired him over the summer, we'd be fine. But now it might be too little, too late.

SMM: Much has been made of Villa having less points than Derby did at this stage of the season when they set a Premier League record for the lowest points tally in a season. How does that feel as a Villa fan?

RS: Hold on, let me just flip through the thesaurus here.... Atrocious. Nauseating. Repugnant. Loathsome. It's actually been really good for my creative juices, coming up with different ways to say that Villa are terrible. I've been keeping track of how many days since Villa's last league win (it'll be up to 119 days when we step on the pitch against Southampton). In the entire calendar year of 2015, Villa have racked up a whole 22 points. That's 22 points in 11 months and 3 days. I'm going to move on now before I start to cry.

SMM: After Wednesday night, are Villa fans optimistic at taking three points at St. Mary's?

RS: Let me break that question down a bit. "Are Villa fans optimistic?" Never. "Are Villa fans optimistic at taking three points?" Unequivocally no. "After Wednesday night, are Villa fans optimistic?" Still not even a tiny bit. Yes, the Saints got thrashed mid-week against Liverpool. But, one poor match does not match the endless, soul-sucking misery Aston Villa has endured. JUST TRY TO BE MORE NEGATIVE THAN US, I DARE YOU.

Remember that time when Southampton beat Villa 6-1 and Sadio Mane scored the fastest ever Premier League hat-trick? Good times. Besides, I'd be thrilled if I were a Saints fan. What better way to wipe the Liverpool game from your memory than by playing Aston Villa? We're like the perfect hangover cure for the rest of the Premier League.

SMM: How will Saturday's match differ to what happened in the Capital One Cup meeting between the two sides?

RS: It won't. Not really, anyways. I mean, we've got a capable manager, so I guess that's different. Southampton are the better side, and I'd even argue that instead of being vulnerable after a couple losses, the Saints will be even more motivated to put in a good performance.

SMM: Finally, what do you think the result will be on Saturday?

RS: After being down 1-0 for 89 minutes, Villa will hand Southampton their second straight 6-1 defeat after Garde goes with the rarely seen triple substitution and throws on HIMSELF and two ball-boys as desperation subs, one of whom will then go on to score the fastest ever DOUBLE HAT-TRICK in the resulting 10 minutes of extra-time, which were due to a lengthy stoppage, because while Villa came out for the second half playing much better, the referee thought to himself, hang on, there's no way Villa are actually playing well, something's wrong, and he realized that instead of 11 players coming out after halftime, Garde snuck a flock (?) of pigeons into our away kits, so the half had to be restarted with the usual players while the pigeons sat on the bench, wondering how many transfer requests they had to hand into force a move out of this awful club, hell they'd even go out on loan just get them away.

Sorry, blacked out there for a sec. 3-1 Southampton