Carew: High-tempo Aston Villa can get opponents on the run

Oct 7 2009 by Mathew Kendrick, Birmingham Mail

JOHN Carew today challenged Villa to crank up the tempo from now on after insisting that they set the standard with their frenetic football against Manchester City.

Carew believes the spirit Martin O’Neill’s men showed in Monday night’s 1-1 draw could be enough to beat Chelsea in their next match a week on Saturday.

The Norwegian powerhouse is convinced the team can get Villa Park visitors running scared if they relentlessly chase down opponents the way they did against City.

“It showed that we compete with the bigger teams,” said Carew.

“With the atmosphere before the game you noticed that everybody was really up for it.

“You saw that from the first whistle we just chased them and we got them on the back foot at once.

“If we are ready for games in that way every week then we will win a lot of games this season.

“It is a really good example for us to follow, we just need to continue that.

“We’ve got Chelsea next and if we are ready for that game in the same way then we will give them a really tough game and hopefully we can win it as well.”

Carew was forced to play a deeper role against Mark Hughes’s Champions League hopefuls, dropping from forward positions to help out in the centre of the park.