O’Neill’s urge for league form
Tuesday 26th January 2010, 9:30AM GMT.
Villa boss Martin O’Neill has urged his players to build on last week’s Blackburn goal spree and start taking their chances in the Premier League.
The claret and blues head into tomorrow night’s crunch clash with Arsenal at Villa Park without a goal in their last three league games, collecting just one point in the process to see them slide to seventh.
But they hit six against Blackburn in the Carling Cup last week – with four different players on the scoresheet – and three more in Saturday’s FA Cup victory over Brighton.
Now O’Neill wants more of the same to lighten the burden on his two main goals contributors, Gabby Agbonlahor and James Milner.
The manager said: “I think we should be sharing them around a bit. What James has done with his goals from midfield is great. I’ve said this before, if you want to be successful you need a midfield player scoring 10 goals but you also need a few people weighing in from all over the place.
“If you’d have asked me at the start of the year I wouldn’t have thought it would be a problem. I’m hoping by May time that it has resolved itself.
“But for the football that we’re playing and for the chances that we create I don’t think we’ve been taking enough of them.”
Erdington-born forward Agbonlahor, who was rested for the weekend Seagulls showdown, is without a goal in his last seven games but O’Neill remains delighted with the striker.
He said: “Somebody told me that some of the pundits on TV after the West Ham match reckoned his confidence was low. I haven’t seen that and I haven’t taken that into consideration. I think that everybody likes to add the occasional goal to the list.
“Nobody likes to go through a few games without one but Gabby I think has been excellent for us all year.”
UK Sport
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