Boss Martin O'Neill is happy to see his Aston Villa side still being considered as major contenders for a top-four finish in the Premier League this season.

A goalless draw at Spurs left Villa down in seventh place in the table, but only three points adrift of Liverpool, who currently occupy the all-important fourth place.

He told the club's official website:"I think that we are still in the race.

"I'm just delighted that we are even being considered and we are still there with it and we've got things to look forward to.

"We are still in both cup competitions and I couldn't be more delighted with the team.

"We're going along nicely, but last season we faltered over the last third of the season and we had more points than we have at this stage as well.

"We probably just didn't have the squad. You can go through excuse after excuse, but I think that if you were looking at them I think you would feel that Manchester City would probably have the strongest squad.

"But that's not to say that Tottenham and Liverpool cannot go full throttle and we're still in the picture."

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