Steven Gerrard urges Villa players to compete with Premier League’s top sides

Steven Gerrard has urged his Aston Villa players to use Saturday’s lunchtime clash with Arsenal to prove they can start competing with the top sides in the Premier League.

Both teams go into the match at Villa Park after seeing recent momentum halted by defeat – Arsenal’s run of five straight wins was ended by Liverpool on Wednesday night while Villa had won three on the bounce before being beaten 2-1 at West Ham last weekend.

For Villa, that was another match in which they failed to take points off a side in the fight for Europe – this season they have garnered only four points from 11 matches against sides in the top eight.

With a 10-point gap to eight-placed Wolves, Villa realistically know they cannot improve on their current ninth place, but Gerrard’s ambitions are set higher in the long term.

“The teams at the top are there for a reason,” Gerrard said. “It’s about consistency, they’ve recruited well, they’ve got experience and some have got managers who have been with them for some time.

“There’s a reality to where we’re at at the moment but that’s the area of the league we need to strive for, it’s where we want to be operating of course.

“I’m very much aware of the stats and those results but tomorrow gives us another opportunity to try to prove that when we’re at our best we can take points off the top teams and the teams that are above us.”

A busy January, in which Gerrard brought in Philippe Coutinho, Lucas Digne and Calum Chambers, played a major role in steering Villa away from the relegation battle and to the top of the mid-table mini league – although Digne will miss out this weekend with a hamstring injury.

Finding more players who can make the sort of impact Coutinho has had since joining on loan from