Laursen Wants To Go For It

Martin Laursen has asked why, if other teams can do it, why Villa haven't been beating the 'big clubs'.

The Danish international defender told the Birmingham Mail:

'This is my fourth season and I can't remember us ever beating one of the big teams in my time here. That's a thing I think we should aim for this season. We need to believe more that we can win against those big teams - I'm talking about Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United. You see other teams beating them, so why can't we? It's not impossible to beat them.'

He says the team have got to start believing in themselves: 'That's something we should improve for this season, to really believe for the whole 90 minutes against the big teams. We should believe we can win every game. We did get some good results against the bigger teams last season. We did very well against Arsenal on the first day of the season and we did well against Chelsea at home. But we still lost 4-0 against Chelsea in the Carling Cup. We still lost three times against Manchester United and we still lost at Liverpool. So it is a record we can try to improve.'

He also says the win against Inter Milan was a good way to get ready to face the 'big games ahead' adding: 'I don't want us to go to places like Old Trafford and Anfield just looking to get the games out of the way. We should go for it.'

With a squad our size, unless they all stay fit throughout the season - it looks like there is another massive uphill battle and you can understand why the likes of Villa skipper Gareth Barry and defender Gary Cahill are openly questioning the lack of incoming players.