Fans & Players Lifted By O’Neill

Aston Villa captain and defender Olof Mellberg is delighted at the arrival of Martin O’Neill at Aston Villa.

‘It’s fantastic for the players and fantastic for the fans as well. I think we all needed a lift – especially the fans. His arrival excites me as a player. I have only heard good things about him. I obviously know Henrik Larsson well and Johan Mjalby and Magnus Hedman the goalkeeper was also there. They know him really well and they’ve all had good things to say about him, so I’m looking forward to working with him.’

‘As I’ve said before, we just focused on pre-season and getting ourselves fit for the new manager. Now he’s here and we can get things right for Arsenal away.’

Villa face Arsenal at their new ground, The Emirates, on August 19th.

Mellberg also says O’Neill’s arrival will give the players a lift, especially the ones that didn’t get a look in last season under David O’Leary.

He explained: ‘It’s all like starting a little bit from scratch for everyone. I think we needed that after last season, because that was really, really disappointing. I think you could see on Saturday from the players who were not really involved last season – players like Eric Djemba-Djemba and Mathieu Berson – came in and looked really determined. So hopefully we can get a bit of a lift.’