Aston Villa fixture run-in compared to West Ham, Wolves and Leicester City

Steven Gerrard has challenged his Aston Villa players to cement a top-half finish this season with eyes on chasing down Wolves above them. Villa are currently 10 points behind their West Midlands rivals whom they play next at Molineux.

The head coach continues to inform the press of his squad's internal targets. Villa also have a points target to hit from now until May with that remaining private.

Back-to-back defeats to West Ham and Arsenal have dented Villa's slim hopes of European qualification. Villa, though, will want to equal or better their ninth-place finish in 2011 which will represent a small improvement on last season's 11th-placed finish under previous manager Dean Smith.

Here, runs through the fixture lists of those in and around Villa in the Premier League table with Leicester and Southampton hot on Gerrard's coattails. Villa's tricky spell continues after the international break with Wolves and Tottenham next up. The club still haven't got dates for their home fixtures with Liverpool Burnley following their respective postponements.

Everton (h) on April 3

Lyon (h) on April 7

Brentford (a) on April 10

Lyon (a) on April 14

Burnley (h) on April 17

Chelsea (a) on April 24

Arsenal (h) on May 1

Norwich (a) on May 7

Man City (h) on May 15

Brighton (a) on May 22

Aston Villa (h) on April 2

Newcastle (a) on April 8

Man City (h) to be confirmed

Burnley (a) on April 24

Brighton (h) on April 30

Chelsea (a) on May 7

Norwich (h) on May 15

Liverpool (a) on May 22

Wolves (a) on April 2

Tottenham (h) on April 9

Liverpool (h) to be confirmed

Burnley (a) to be confirmed

Leicester City (a) on April 23

Norwich (h) on April 30

Burnley (h) on May 7

Crystal Palace (h) on May 15

Man City (a) on May 22

Man Utd (a) on April 2

PSV