Villa defender Stephen Warnock has warned it is too early to get carried away with their promising start and insisted – ‘Judge us in January.’

Martin O’Neill’s men sit fifth in the table just a point off the Champions League places and have already accumulated a point more than at this stage last season.

But left-back Warnock believes it is their forthcoming run of fixtures between now and Christmas, starting with a trip to Burnley on Saturday, which will dictate their campaign.

He said: “Would we have taken what we’ve got so far? I think so. But then you’re always disappointed with the games you’ve lost.

“Not many teams win at Liverpool, so you’d probably say we’ve probably picked up an extra couple of points there, while maybe you would have expected us to beat Blackburn or Wigan so things even themselves out.

“Now we’ve got an added incentive to really kick on and go on a good run up until Christmas.

“It’s an important time and hopefully we can pick the right results up to know that we’ll be up there fighting for that top-four position.”