Remi Garde: I believe Joleon Lescott's excuse

Villa manager Remi Garde has spoken to Joleon Lescott about his social media gaffe and insisted he believes the player.

The Villa defender enraged fans by tweeting a picture of a top-of-the-range Mercedes just an hour after a 6-0 loss to Liverpool 11 days ago.

Lescott apologised and insisted it was accidently sent from his pocket after being bombarded by angry supporters on Twitter – following their heaviest home defeat for almost 81 years.

Rock bottom Villa go to Stoke tomorrow eight points from safety in the Premier League and Garde conceded Lescott's tweet did not help their cause.

He said: "He told me it was an accident. I have no reason not to believe Joleon.

"We were together speaking face to face. I believe what he said. I just said to him that I was not expecting from an experienced player, senior player, such an accident.

"It was not really helpful for the team. If it's like an accident then you cannot say any more."

But despite not being a fan of social media Garde admitted clubs would not be able to ban players from it.

"I think it is a freedom for everybody. It would be very difficult to create a law for that and I'm not sure it would work," he said.

"I think in life in general we have to educate people to a lot of stuff, especially on social media."