Villa Still Aiming For Top 10

Martin O’Neill is looking for at least 6 points from the last three games.

With trips to Manchester City and Bolton, as well as a home game against Sheffield United, O’Neill is looking for 2 wins.

The Villa boss said: ‘If you look at it, we haven’t lost that many games. There are plenty of sides above us who have lost more games than we have. The fact is that over the whole season, we’ve drawn too many games. I can think of at least five occasions without going back too far where we should have won the game and, with the extra two points, we’d be talking about stabilising a position for Europe.’

‘Now, while that is frustrating, it augurs well for what we’re trying to achieve. While this season’s not over yet, next season is something to look forward to. We still want to finish in the top half of the table. We dropped a couple of points last week, when we should have beaten Portsmouth and we dropped a couple of points in the previous home game when we should have beaten Wigan.’

‘Now I know everybody talks the same way about what might have been. But what hasn’t altered is what I’ve said from day-one: Where we do finish is where we’ll deserve to be. I think myself we’re capable of finishing in the top half. We’ll need a strong finish. We’ve got two away games and one at home against Sheffield United. So we would need to remain unbeaten for a start and we might need two victories from the three.’

And O’Neill insists Villa aren’t coasting to the end of the season, he wants a top ten finish.

Villa are in competition with Blackburn (34 games played, 44 points), Newcastle (12th with 42 points), Man City (13th with 42 points) and Middlesbrough (14th 40 points) for 10th.