Villa boss Martin O’Neill has hit back at suggestions his side are choking in the Champions League chase – and backed his team to challenge ‘right until the end.’

A 2-0 defeat at Manchester City means Villa have now gone six games without a win and, while three of those were cup matches, their once strong position in the top four is suddenly under attack from Arsenal.

The fifth-placed Gunners, who won 3-1 at Albion on Tuesday night, are now only three points adrift – just three days after Villa missed the chance to go eight points clear of them by conceding two late goals to draw with Stoke.

O’Neill pinpointed Sunday’s setback as a reason for his team’s sluggish start at Eastlands – they never got going until the second half – but he refuted claims his team are panicking under the pressure.

He said: “I don’t think it can be nerves. They (the players) have never been in this situation before, I think there is a genuine excitement.

“We were obviously very disappointed not to complete the victory on Sunday and I think that was in the back of our minds for a while.

“I genuinely think that now, even though we did our best to get over it. It was a game we should have won and we didn’t.

“It will happen again between now and the end of the season and, interestingly, it will happen to some of our challengers, so we have to be ready for it.

“I wouldn’t have thought given the second half performance that anybody would have viewed us as playing with a great deal of nerves.”

O’Neill reportedly took his players on a tour of Manchester’s Museum of Science and Industry, plus a look around the Coronation Street studios, ahead of the game, but they couldn’t work out a way past City, who led at the break courtesy of Elano’s penalty before sealing the points late on through Shaun Wright-Phillips.

The team leave today for a break in Dubai before returning to face Tottenham at Villa Park a week on Sunday. Trips to Liverpool and Manchester United then follow.

The Villa manager said: “We are ready to get ourselves built for the last charge. Let’s go for it.

“We are in this position now, we have been here throughout the season because we deserve to be. I think it would be a shame for us to throw it away without a fight.”