The last game of the season is approaching, and the players are already dreaming of pina coladas and sandy beaches. Most of them anyway. It’s the time of the year when few clubs have anything to play for, and the ones that do are frantic and pumped up.

Aston Villa do still have something to play for - a big something, the FA Cup - but this weekend it’s Premier League duty. Villa are safe, and their opponents are the already-relegated Burnley.

So there’s not much to play for in this particular game. And Villa are in a tricky situation.

It’s not at all a bad situation, but every club goes through this in their last game before a cup final - do you play your best team and try to gain momentum before the final, or do you rest your players out of a mortal fear of an injury to your best and brightest?

Momentum is important, if you’re out of form you’re more likely to lose. Psychology is at work here and when things go wrong, they seem to go worse the next time. Bayern Munich are a good example of how having bigger fish to fry can hurt you big time. Bayern stopped trying in the Bundesliga post winter break, their league form suffered and they were dumped out of the Champions League fairly convincingly at the hands of Barcelona. The same thing happened last season when they faced Real Madrid.

You need to keep the form going because if you don’t, you’re likely to meet a team in form in the final.

Villa’s form, though, took a bit of a knock last week in their 6-1 humiliation at St Mary’s against Southampton. That might look like a shocker, something that will have hit their confidence and made it more difficult to get up for the final. Or it might really benefit them for the final.

The great thing for Villa after that horror show last weekend is the fact that they have another game before they face Arsenal at Wembley. They have a game now to put things right and find their feet again. Burnley are certainly no pushovers as they’ve showed this season, but after a heavy defeat, the best thing for Villa is that they’re playing against a weaker team - as evidenced by their relegation.

A win against Burnley would see the confidence soar before the final.

Last season, Hull City went into the FA Cup final on the back of some shocking league form - two wins in 11 games - and lost to Arsenal. This time around, if Villa win on Sunday they’ll have five wins in their last seven in all competitions. Arsenal meanwhile, have won only two of their last six.

It’s not all about form, of course, but it’s nice to have form going into the final. And against Arsenal, who are big favourites, Villa will need all the help they can get.

But this is the tough situation that Villa face. Since Sherwood has come in, they players have been on good form overall, but they’ve worked hard. Sherwood might be tempted to rest some players to keep them fresh for the final, but when you’ve just been trounced by Southampton you don’t want to have to wait a week before you can get out onto the pitch again to make amends. And you definitely don’t want to be trying to make amends at Wembley.

But without resting some players, Villa’s key members of the squad might not want to play Burnley as wholeheartedly as they might otherwise. Burnley are a physical team who will work hard, and if the Villa players are worried about injuries then they’ll find it very tough.

That’s the balancing act for Sherwood. He can rest players to keep them fit, or win the game and gather momentum, but he knows it’s not as simple as that. Sherwood’s solace is the fact that Wenger is in exactly the same position. Short of form and worried about the fitness of key players.

So which do you prioritise - form or fitness?

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