Dean Smith Aston Villa
Dean Smith remains adamant Aston Villa have enough to pull off an almighty escape act – despite falling four points adrift at the bottom. After Watford’s win against Norwich City, Villa’s task of beating the drop got tougher but Smith still remains optimistic that his side can turn things around starting with their upcoming clash against Manchester United.
Dean Smith said “We got a point at Old Trafford, took a lead thanks to a great goal from Jack and we more than matched them on the day. We have to do that again, they’re in a better run of form now but there is a lot of desire within the team. They [Manchester United] are a very good team, they have improved but there is a lot of heart that we can take from our performance against Liverpool. We have to do the same against a team that are full of confidence. Our form in terms of performance levels have been much better but we haven’t got the points tally that we feel we deserve. There are points that we have left out there and the only way we can put that right is in the last five games. Weirdly, we don’t see it as a long time without a win. We’ve just played five games and see this as a new season. We can’t be looking at the form four months ago. I know statisticians will do that. We have to maintain our standards defensively and better them if possible. If we do that, we’re in the game and we have to make sure that we turn on our quality in the final third.”
