3 Points, 3 Points, My Kingdom for..

Gavin McCann has defended the team and says it will take time for the 'new look Villa' to gel. I thought the argument was there isn't a new look Villa yet? Have to excuse me, I'm easily confused! I'd say we won't fully see a new look until next season when hopefully we've had a busy summer spending.

With Villa currently in 15th place, a win against Everton is crucial. That could take us up to 11th which would look and feel so much better for all of us and should settle a few nerves. A loss will cement our place in the relegation fight, especially as we still have to play Wigan and Sheffield United again.

15	Aston Villa	34 points
16	Wigan	33 points
17	Sheff Utd	31 points
18	Charlton	30 points
19	West Ham	26 points

McCann said: 'We have been working hard in training, but you can't beat games. I suppose we could have done better in the FA Cup, but the stop-start hasn't really helped. Now we've got three games in a week which is what I prefer, it's a lot better that way. Normally, if you lose a game, you've got one straight after to try and put it right. But that hasn't been happening in recent weeks. It does get to you a little bit.'

Adding, on the official site: 'The new lads have done well, John Carew has been brilliant and Ashley Young scored on his debut. But the way the fixtures are means the team haven't had chance to gel yet. Shaun Maloney seems to have played for Scotland more than he has for us. He was ill for the Arsenal game and when he was warming up against Liverpool, I reminded him that he'd been here six weeks and not even played at Villa Park.'

'With Liverpool, nothing really happened, it was stale. We just need a couple of wins so we're not looking over our shoulders. As for where we're going to finish this season, all we can do is play Everton and see where that leaves us. Then we've got Blackburn and Wigan, so we'd like to think we can pick up points from those games. We've beaten Everton once up there, but since then we've been hit and miss.'

COME ON VILLA!

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