Curtis Davies today warned Villa must start delivering against the Premier League’s lesser lights – or forget about their Champions League dream.

Much of the good work of the last fortnight, when Villa took four points off Manchester United and Arsenal, was undone as Martin O’Neill’s side were held to a goalless draw by Fulham on Saturday.

And further misery was inflicted yesterday when United and the Gunners both took full advantage by claiming impressive away victories at Manchester City and Chelsea respectively. Villa now find themselves relegated to fifth and with Everton, Bolton and West Ham now lying in wait before the Gunners visit on Boxing Day, Davies admits they cannot afford any further slip-ups if they are serious about a top-four finish.

“It’s no good getting the results against the big teams and then not getting them against the teams you should get – with all due respect to the Fulhams,” said Davies.

“Even before the Arsenal and Manchester United matches if we’d have even got four points from the Middlesbrough and Newcastle games like we would have expected to we would have been right up there.

“It’s frustrating that we let ourselves down against the so-called mid-table teams. They put in a solid performance and we couldn’t score.

“We have to keep going, we are a confident team and we have got a good run of games now.

“If we can get a few good results we will still be up there. Then hopefully we will be knocking on the door of the top four.”

But midfielder Stiliyan Petrov insists Villa should still be pleased with their start to the season.

“We just need to look forwards,” said the Bulgarian. “Before the season if anyone had asked if we would be happy with 25 points before Christmas, and be level with Manchester United until yesterday, you would take it.

“The league table still looks extremely healthy from our point of view.

“There is always pressure when you want to be at the top. It’s okay being 10th or 11th and thinking you have done well enough but we want to be in the top four.”