Ron Vlaar alert to danger as the pack chase Aston Villa

The claret and blues skipper insisted the club need to be aware of the chasing pack to stay out of trouble.

They are four points above the Premier League's drop zone with just eight points separating the bottom half.

Villa sit 12th and go to Newcastle on Sunday and Vlaar knows the importance of avoiding complacency.

"Nobody has gained any ground on us but we have to look down to the teams around us," he said.

"There are 10 or 11 teams really close together so it's really exciting to watch as a neutral.

"It will stay really close together for a few weeks and you see anybody can beat anybody else. We have to make sure we don't really get in trouble and go below the relegation line.

"I've said before we shouldn't be in trouble this year, but we have to get results and have to show what we're capable of because otherwise we can get dragged into it.

"It's really close together and we have to be really careful and try to get as many points as we can get."

Villa have won just three of their last 15 league games and drew 0-0 at struggling Cardiff last week and Vlaar is ruing the lost points.

"It's all really close together and it would have been great if we had got the three points at Cardiff but there's a lot to build on from what we showed last Tuesday night," said the defender.

"We definitely need more points, that's obvious.

"We know we need points and that's what we go for every game. We know we must play as a team and work really hard."

Villa stayed up with 41 points last season, finally sealing safety in the final week of the campaign.

But Vlaar has refused to set a survival target with 12 games of the season left.

He said: "I don't know, I cannot answer and I won't guess. We just go from one game to another. The next game's Newcastle away. It's a difficult to match, but I think we have the qualities to win against any team. We showed that earlier in the season."