Sutton Can Fire Us Into Europe

Stiliyan Petrov says that Chris Sutton, who he first played with for Celtic, will only improve as he gains match fitness and says he could make the difference in our quest for Europe.

Petrov said of the 33-year-old striker who got off the mark for Villa against Everton: ‘Chris did great. We know what he can do – he gave us a different option, he’s a big striker who can see things and he scored a great goal. It seems Juan and Chris are working very well together. They work very hard for the team – you can see how much effort they put in and they got their reward. When you have two strikers working as hard as they did, you can always get goals and achieve things.

‘Chris has been out for a few months and hasn’t had a pre-season, but he’s working his socks off. He’s been working very hard and if he can get fit again, just imagine what he can do. He’s good enough to play every game but I think the manager knows what he needs. Chris has been in the game a long time and he knows exactly when he’s fresh and when he can do a job. We’ve played together for a long time and when you know someone well, you can link together and that will happen again here.

‘Everyone – myself, Gabby and Juan – are all starting to link together with Chris. That’s the main thing and if we keep going the same way we’ll improve more and more.’

Meanwhile Sutton has backed the Villa youth to be major successes for Villa.

‘The gaffer will keep their feet on the ground, but they’re not daft – there’s some good young players at Villa, there’s no doubt about that. We’ve got probably some of the strongest youngsters there are about. We work hard for one another. Young Isaiah came in, he’s only 18 and he did exceptionally well. I thought Gary Cahill and Liam Ridgewell were outstanding. All the back players played well and everyone works hard, which is important.’

‘There are a lot of young players at the club which is good for the future, but it’s like any club and fans want success immediately. It’s a good club in that everyone wants to work hard for each other and do well. Everyone’s pulling in the right direction and we know we’ve got a long way to go.’

Success now, success for the future and success ever more, and we’ll all be happy!