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Albrighton admits Villa are 'in a mess'

Marc Albrighton has been a rare bright spark in a tough season for Aston Villa © PA Photos

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Aston Villa winger Marc Albrighton has called on his team-mates to pull together, saying they are in "a bit of a mess''.

Villa slumped to a fourth defeat in five matches with Sunday night's 2-1 loss against a Tottenham side that played for more than an hour with 10 men. These are troubled times for Villa and boss Gerard Houllier, and it does not get any easier over the next few days with trips to Manchester City and Chelsea awaiting. With Villa 15th and just four points above the relegation zone, they could be in the bottom three come their next home game with Sunderland in eight days' time.

Asked if Villa were embroiled in a relegation battle, Albrighton pulled no punches as he said: "We have to look at it and think 'yeah, it is'. The table doesn't lie. Against a lot of teams we've played well and created chances, but we've not tucked them away, and we've leaked goals at the back we probably shouldn't have.

"That's why we are down there. If you don't win games then you are going to be down there, and we have to do something about that. It's going to be tough to get out of it, but there's nobody who can put that right other than the players.

"We just have to stick together as a group and hopefully we'll pull something out of the bag. We've got ourselves in a bit of a mess, and we just need to pull together to get ourselves out of it. We have to move on. It's been a bad run, but there is nothing we can do about it now, we just have to look to the next game and hope to pick something up.

"The next two games are obviously massive, but then every game we play from now until the end of the season is going to be like that.''

Despite his age and inexperience, Albrighton knows he has to look within himself to help Villa, rather than rely on the older heads around him to pull him through such a situation.

"We know we've quality in the dressing room,'' added Albrighton. "The older players have to play a part, but then there's nobody out there who doesn't deserve to be playing, so everybody on that pitch needs to pull their weight.

"We can't pass responsibility. Every one of us has to take on that responsibility. Against Manchester City we just have to pull our socks up and get stuck in again. We're going there with not a lot to lose. People are going to be expecting us to get done over, but from our point of view, we are going there to win a football game.

"No matter who is in front of us, it's 11 v 11 out on the pitch, and we have to win this game.''

Houllier feels second-placed City are now a more cohesive unit in comparison to this time a year ago when boss Roberto Mancini took up the reins.

"They're a good side, one I think will be amongst the contenders for the title at the end of the season,'' said the Frenchman. "The bulk of the team now has played nearly a year and a half together, and that's what you need.''

Houllier has doubts over Emile Heskey (ankle), Ashley Young (knee) and Luke Young (groin) going into the game.

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