Barry & Sidwell Say Villa ARE Top Four Contenders

Both Steve Sidwell and potentially more importantly Gareth Barry have said that Villa should consider themselves top four contenders following the win at the Emirates.

Sid said: 'We will let other people do the talking about the top four. We know what we want to achieve and we have got the ability to achieve it. If we can perform like that for the rest of the season then we have a good chance.'



He admits that consistency is crucial and warns the 2-0 against Arsenal won't matter if we don't now go on a run of good results.

The former Reading and Chelsea player explains 'We can take hope and pride from the Arsenal win and take it into the two home matches.' adding it was crucial to get back to winning ways following the Newcastle and Middlesbrough games.

He also says 'we can’t celebrate too hard because we have got Man United on Saturday.'

I wonder if Gareth Barry is starting to be convinced that he can achieve his dreams of Champions League football whilst at Villa? Hope so!



He not only thinks that Villa can compete for the top four but he declared after the weekend victory; 'Now bring on the champions!' adding, 'Can we beat United? I don’t see why not. We can give them a good game. Our record against them is pretty terrible but this win sets us up nicely. I’ve played in a lot of games so it’s a bit difficult to recall them all but I am sure the manager will say that was the best performance under him.'

Can we beat Manchester United? Gulp.... Heart says yes, but the old head just worries about getting too excited judging by our years of disappointment. Still, we've got to do it again one year, why not dream of a stupendous double eh?!?!

Do you think that Barry is coming round now? Starting to believe it might well be worth his while staying at Villa instead of trying to resurrect the deal to go to Liverpool?

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