Gabriel Agbonlahor calls for Aston Villa to finish strongly
Apr 15 2009 by Mathew Kendrick, Birmingham Mail
GABBY Agbonlahor has challenged Villa to take their unlikely Champions League push right down to the wire by winning their final six matches.
Agbonlahor is convinced Villa can gain maximum points at home to West Ham, Hull and Newcastle and away at Bolton, Fulham and Middlesbrough.
The Brummie striker is doubtful for Saturday’s visit of the Hammers after sustaining a hamstring problem in last weekend’s thrilling 3-3 draw with Everton.
And Agbonlahor is adamant Villa have the attacking quality to target 18 points with six victories from six to pile the pressure on fourth-placed Arsenal.
“The lads did brilliantly from an attacking point of view against Everton and, if you get three goals, you should win the game,” he said. “We are disappointed from that viewpoint but we’ve now got to go out and try and win the next six games. We probably need to win all six to have a chance to overtake Arsenal, but if you look at earlier in the season, we went on that long unbeaten run.
“There is no reason why we can’t win the next six games.
“If you look at the games as well, they are winnable games. The majority of the teams are in the bottom half of the table.
“If you look at Arsenal’s fixtures, they’ve got to play the top three still.
“They turned around our six point lead of only a few weeks ago and I think we are definitely capable of reversing things in the same way.”
Agbonlahor believes Villa’s stirring comeback against David Moyes’ Toffees is proof they will not give up their top four hopes without a fight.
“The lads showed they are still up for the challenge. When we went 3-1 down against Everton, the heads could have dropped and maybe would have in previous games and it could have been 5-1 or 6-1.
