Garde: Villa fighting hard for survival

Manager Remi Garde is hoping Aston Villa’s fighting spirit can get them out of Premier League trouble after a 2-0 home win against Norwich City boosted their slim survival hopes.

Villa remain rock-bottom of the Premier League but are now eight points from safety after goals from Joleon Lescott and Gabby Agbonlahor sealed a potentially vital three points.

Afterwards, Garde insisted the attitude of his players has been much improved in recent fixtures, which is finally now yielding an upturn in their fortunes.

“For a long time now, we are playing that way,” he said. “For a few weeks now, we have the right attitude, everybody is fighting very hard for the team.

“This is something you can rely on and build something.

“After that you can play football. You can speak about football, but if you have not got this base it is very difficult to win Premier League games.”

Garde added that while it was important to record only Villa’s third Premier League win of the season, he was still unconvinced by their first-half performance.

“It is very important for us to have three points more, but I’m not sure we played our best football, especially in the first 45 minutes,” the Frenchman added. 

“Norwich played well, defended very well, pressured us high on the pitch and we had some problems to play our football.

“Then we scored just before half-time from a set-piece. I was very pleased for us.

“When the players behave like they did today – fighting all together, showing a very good spirit  – this is the way the fans want us to behave.”