Remi Garde insists Villa can still survive

Joleon Lescott and Gabby Agbonlahor scored in Saturday's 2-0 win over Norwich to give Villa just their third league win of the season.

They remain bottom of the Premier League and eight points from safety.

But, in a season where Leicester City top the division and defending champions Chelsea languish in mid-table, Garde feels Villa can add to the unpredictable campaign and survive.

He said: "Why not? When you see Leicester now, it's crazy and unbelievable, nobody could have seen that 12 months ago.

"We should be inspired by that. I have the feeling it's very tough but the players I select every week believe it's still possible.

"The road is still very long and difficult, until the end we will have a lot of suffering. Nobody will help us now, it will be within the dressing room.

"I believe in hard work, discipline, rigour. It's not only in a week or two weeks you can pick up the fruits of that. If we keep this attitude maybe everyone will eat fruits at the end of the season."

Lescott, who opened the scoring just before the break, added: "Everyone has written us off and so we've got nothing to lose. If we go down everyone says' well, we knew that in January or February."

Garde added he was pleased to see Gabby Agbonlahor performing well.

The Villa boss, who admitted previously the pair had not always seen eye-to-eye, said: "Scoring was very important for him, because when you are a striker and not scoring for a long time it's very painful.

"We have 13 games to go and hopefully Gabby could be the one to help the team fight until the end.

"But it's not only about Gabby, it's about all the players around him. I'm pleased he's back on track."