Aston Villa: Let's rise to the challenge
Dec 15 2009 By Mat Kendrick
Stiliyan Petrov
MARTIN O’Neill’s leading lieutenants Stiliyan Petrov and Richard Dunne have challenged Villa to cope with the rising top-four pressure, starting at Sunderland tonight.
Villa crumbled under the weight of expectation after putting themselves in a similarly promising position during last season’s challenge for a Champions League place.
Petrov and Dunne have both led by example during Villa’s climb up the table and reckon Saturday’s historic win at Old Trafford showed the new-found belief in the dressing room.
“I don’t think if you win games like that you can sneak under the radar,” said Petrov.
“People notice you and they know the players we’ve got and they know that we’ve got a good team now. But it’s up to us to perform and to show people what we can do.
“If we can cope with the pressure and we can be consistent we can achieve something. It’s up to us to show that on the park.
“The game’s getting harder and harder and the teams are now more stronger this year and more competitive. We need to get points and who gets most points will be in the top four. There’s always pressure, even if you’re in the bottom and the middle.
“At the top it’s even more pressure because now you need to win games. Sometimes when you’re in the middle you can get away with a draw or losing a game. But now every point will be vital. We need to win games.
“So far we’ve played Liverpool, Chelsea and Man United and we’ve managed to beat them but we need to do that consistently against the other teams and the big teams as well if we want to finish in the top four. I hope we can do it.”
Petrov doubts that Villa can be regarded as title contenders because they lack the experience of their rival pace-setters.
He added: “You’re talking about teams who have been there for long periods of time – for years and years.
“They have dominated this league, so it’s going to be very hard.
“Let’s try to be as close as we can to the top four. Let’s see where we are a few games before the end and we’ll see what we can do and what we’ll achieve.”
Dunne echoed his captain’s sentiments and admits Villa’s potential to challenge the top four was his main motivation for joining. But the experienced defender has advised O’Neill’s ambitious team to stay focused by paying little attention to the Premier League table.
“It’s put us in a decent position now but December is so crucial for everyone,” said Dunne.
“There are so many games and maybe come February you can start thinking and looking at the position you can aim for.
“At the moment we just have to keep picking up points. Where we are now is great but it’s a difficult thing.
“There will be teams chasing us so the pressure is on.
“It’s nice, we can enjoy it at the moment, but it will mean nothing for us until May.
“That’s why I came here. There were options to go to other places but Aston Villa showed last year how good they were with how close they came.
“Hopefully there is the strength in depth in the squad now to continue what we started.”
VILLA (from): Friedel, Guzan, Beye, Cuellar, Collins, L Young, Dunne, Warnock, Reo-Coker, Sidwell, Petrov, Delph, Downing, A Young, Gardner, Milner, Agbonlahor, Carew, Heskey.
