Martin O’Neill believes his young Villa side could gatecrash the top six – and become the Premier League’s entertainers.

The Villa boss admitted feeling mixed emotions as his side threw away a 4-1 lead to draw 4-4 at Tottenham last night.

But he described pacy tormentors Gabriel Agbonlahor and Ashley Young as ‘wizards’ and believe Villa possess the firepower to challenge for Europe.

“We’re capable of challenging for the top six, but the slight concern is the squad,” said O’Neill.

“I’m delighted with the players. They showed a great will to win and play.

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Martin O’Neill believes his young Villa side could gatecrash the top six – and become the Premier League’s entertainers.

The Villa boss admitted feeling mixed emotions as his side threw away a 4-1 lead to draw 4-4 at Tottenham last night.

But he described pacy tormentors Gabriel Agbonlahor and Ashley Young as ‘wizards’ and believe Villa possess the firepower to challenge for Europe.

“We’re capable of challenging for the top six, but the slight concern is the squad,” said O’Neill.

“I’m delighted with the players. They showed a great will to win and play.

“We want goals, we want to attack and we want to go for it. Agbonlahor was unbelievable and Ashley Young was too.

“We probably didn’t get enough of the ball to him in the second-half.

“But they were like wizards, really great. Agbonlahor was doing some fantastic stuff. He was getting it down, taking it on and then he lashed it into the net.

“But I’m very disappointed – the top teams wouldn’t need to score four to win and that’s why we’ve still got a long way to go. It was great entertainment.”

Two-goal man of the match Martin Laursen said: “We’re all down and this is going to be hard to take. It won’t be easy to sleep for the next few days. But I’m sure after training today we’ll start to think about West Ham.”