Pressure Eases On Ollie And Co

Olof Mellberg has revealed that Villaˇ¦s return to scoring ways means the clubˇ¦s defenders are no longer living life on the edge.

The Swedish international ace has been one of the star performers as Villa have conceded just 13 goals in 15 Premiership outings this term.

But, until the recent purple patch of ten goals in the last four league and cup outings, Mellberg admits the defenders were living in fear that one mistake could prove costly.

He revealed: "Now we are scoring the goals as well and that feels good for us at the back because it means we don't have to keep a clean sheet to win the game every time.

"It does take the pressure off you. Before we were worried that if we made one mistake it would lose us the game because the ball wasn't going in for us."

Mellberg added: "The performance against West Ham last Saturday was one of the best since I came here and the best of this season definitely.

"We hope it can kick-start our season. We have played well lately, came through difficult away games at Manchester United and Blackburn and are unbeaten for quite some time now.

"Darius is looking sharp after getting over his injury problems and Dion Dublin is a great outlet because you can throw the ball up to him and he's able to hold it up which is important for us."