A frustrated Zat Knight admits Villa have no excuses for their recent ‘soft’ defending, insisting: ‘It’s not good enough.’

Sunday’s 3-3 draw with Everton meant Martin O’Neill’s men have now shipped 11 goals in their last three games, with boss Martin O’Neill has conceding his team’s Champions League hopes are all but over.

Villa’s defence have looked increasingly shaky and Knight believes the claret and blue back four are guilty of giving away too many sloppy goals, after they again gifted their opponents the initiative in the early stages on Sunday.

The former Fulham centre-half said: “First half defensively we weren’t at the races. Second half we showed we can be a lot better.

“It’s frustrating, especially as a defender. That’s your main aim to go out there and keep a clean sheet and if they (the strikers) don’t score at the other end that’s not our problem.

“Our problem is the back. It’s just not good enough. We haven’t had a settled back four but everyone’s played together before so I think that’s just an excuse. I don’t know what it is. If I knew what it was I’d be the manager.

“There are some very soft goals. There’s times when we are dropping off too deep and they are getting a run at us.”

Villa’s fightback was enough to prevent David Moyes’ men leapfrogging them into fifth. The draw allowed Arsenal to extend their advantage to eight points, along with a far superior goal difference, with six games to go.

Knight believes Villa can take positives from the fine forward play which saw them fight back from 2-0 and 3-1 down.

But he has demanded they swiftly sort out the defensive errors.

He said: “I think from a fans’ point of view it was a great game to watch, but from our point of view it was a bit disappointing to score three goals and to concede three goals.

“If we score three goals we expect to win the game, but it wasn’t to be.”