Defender Christophe Berra believes Wolves have “arrived” on the Premier League stage after proving they can cope with the big guns.

The team have performed impressively to earn draws against Everton and Villa in the last two games.

But, ironically, Mick McCarthy’s men have slipped a place to fourth from bottom in the table, but they have remained unbeaten against two teams who played in Europe this season and arrested the slide after three successive defeats.

As they approach the tough-looking assignments at Stoke and Chelsea sandwiched in between Arsenal at home, Berra reckons the recent results prove they can cope with the best.

He said: “We thoroughly deserved it against Villa. Our overall performance showed we can compete with the big teams. Villa are a good team with a lot of international quality players.

“They’ve got James Milner, Gabby Agbonlahor, Ashley Young, Emile Heskey, Richard Dunne, all internationals. But we deserved at least a draw and we were maybe unlucky not to get a victory.

“We try to play football and before half-time against Villa there was good link-up play with Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, Michael Kightly and Kevin Doyle and other players.

“We didn’t start the second half well but after that we came back into the game. We were still pushing on into injury-time after we got the goal.

“They were going to have chances but I don’t think our keeper Wayne Hennessey had many saves to make and the goal came out of nothing.

“We showed great character to come back and got the penalty – the boys were saying we should have had a penalty in the first half.

“It was a great experience and I’m learning with every game, as are all other players as well.”

Ebanks-Blake’s rocket-like penalty rescued a deserved point for Wolves and Berra believes the goal will give the striker the confidence to establish himself in the Premier League.

The defender said: “I’m surprised it didn’t go through the net, he hit it so hard! He’s always been a goalscorer. He was just unlucky with having a few injuries at the start of the season. He had a couple of chances last week he was unlucky with and hopefully scoring on Saturday will give him more confidence.”

Berra also believes Ebanks-Blake and £6.5million record signing Kevin Doyle are being spurred on by the heavy competition, with Andy Keogh having started well along with Chris Iwelumo and Stefan Mairerhofer available at Stoke on Saturday.

The Scotland international said: “They have linked up well but Chris came in on Saturday and Andy Keogh has had a great start to the season. With Stefan to come back, there are lots of strikers

“It’s good for the team that so many people vying for the starting XI and not just the ones on the bench. There are ones in the stand who are unlucky, because they’re quality players.”

Villa’s starting XI cost around £64million, while they had another £27million of talent on the bench and Berra believes Saturday’s derby proved why he moved south of the border – because the centre-half could be marking someone worth £20million rather than £200,000.

He said: “I’ve played against Hibs and it’s a big derby in Edinburgh, but the Premier League is a different beast and it’s the best league in the world.

“In Scotland you might be playing against players worth £200,000, whereas in the Premier League you might be against players worth £20million and more.

“Every derby has its own passion – the players love it but it’s a lot to do with the fans with Birmingham and Wolverhampton very close.

“We enjoyed it. The gaffer told us beforehand not to get wrapped up in it and I don’t think we did. It was a great atmosphere and hopefully the fans can keep on doing that throughout the season.

“When things aren’t going well for you at home, you expect them to get behind you and they did that.”