GABBY Agbonlahor has praised Gerard Houllier and his fellow players for dragging Villa out of their early season mess – but warned that they are still in a relegation battle.

Agbonlahor admits that the claret and blues have been playing catch-up for most of the season following Martin O’Neill’s untimely resignation back in August.

Villa have shown signs of recovery in recent weeks despite dropping points with the defeat at Manchester United and Saturday’s frustrating Fulham draw.

But the Brummie striker reckons his boyhood club can’t afford to rest easy until they have put a much greater gap between themselves and the Premier League drop zone.