Martin O’Neill has warned Wolves they will have to breach the new Premier League mean machine if they want to take the derby spoils.

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Villa arrive in the Black Country for today’s derby battle with the best defensive record in the Premier League, having conceded just seven times so far this season.

It represents a major turnaround in fortunes for the claret and blues, who struggled at the back in the second half of last season in the absence of Martin Laursen, with much of the credit having been attributed to Villa’s new £19m defensive trio Stephen Warnock, Richard Dunne and James Collins.

But as delighted as O’Neill has been by his new recruits, he insists Villa’s rearguard success has been very much a team effort – and has praised the way the rest of his team has defended from the front.

He said: “The defensive players, including the goalkeeper, would be the first ones to admit the help they get from the players in front of them has been fantastic – James Milner tracking back, for example.

“The ground he covered against Chelsea was quite phenomenal. But then the boys at the back (Collins and Dunne) have been able to turn around and say they have contributed at set-pieces with a few goals that wouldn’t have been scored normally.

“Stephen is everything I thought he might be and maybe a bit more besides.

“You have a better chance if you have characters with a bit about them, I feel that. If they have ability too, you feel you are on to a winner.

“But you never know the person until they arrive at the club. You try and do as much homework as you can.”