It's all going wrong: Marc Albrighton of Aston Villa cannot believe that Tottenham have beaten them
Villa slumped to a fourth defeat in five Barclays Premier League matches with last night's 2-1 loss against a Tottenham side that played for more than an hour with 10 men.
These are troubled times for Villa and boss Gerard Houllier, and it does not get any easier over the next few days with trips to Manchester City and Chelsea awaiting.
With Villa 15th and just four points above the relegation zone, there lurks a very real prospect they could be in the bottom three come their next home game with Sunderland in eight days' time.
For a young player such as Albrighton, in his first full campaign with the club, it is a steep learning curve.
But displaying creditable maturity, the 21-year-old knows exactly what is required of himself and those around him in the weeks and months ahead.
Asked if Villa were embroiled in a relegation battle, Albrighton pulled no punches as he said: 'We have to look at it and think 'yeah, it is'. The table doesn't lie.
'Against a lot of teams we've played well and created chances, but we've not tucked them away, and we've leaked goals at the back we probably shouldn't have.
'That's why we are down there. If you don't win games then you are going to be down there, and we have to do something about that.
'It's going to be tough to get out of it, but there's nobody who can put that right other than the players.
'We just have to stick together as a group and hopefully we'll pull something out of the bag. We've got ourselves in a bit of a mess, and we just need to pull together to get ourselves out of it.
'We have to move on. It's been a bad run, but there is nothing we can do about it now, we just have to look to the next game and hope to pick something up.
'The next two games are obviously massive, but then every game we play from now until the end of the season is going to be like that.'
Double Dutch: Rafael van der Vaart celebrates his second goal against Villa
Despite his age and inexperience, Albrighton knows he has to look within himself to help Villa, rather than rely on the older heads around him to pull him through such a situation.
'We know we've quality in the dressing room,' added Albrighton.
'The older players have to play a part, but then there's nobody out there who doesn't deserve to be playing, so everybody on that pitch needs to pull their weight.
'We can't pass responsibility. Every one of us has to take on that responsibility. Against Manchester City we just have to pull our socks up and get stuck in again.
'We're going there with not a lot to lose. People are going to be expecting us to get done over, but from our point of view, we are going there to win a football game.
'No matter who is in front of us, it's 11 v 11 out on the pitch, and we have to win this game.'
Houllier feels second-placed City are now a more cohesive unit in comparison to this time a year ago when boss Roberto Mancini took up the reins.
'They're a good side, one I think will be amongst the contenders for the title at the end of the season,' said the Frenchman.
'The bulk of the team now has played nearly a year and a half together, and that's what you need.'
Houllier has doubts over Emile Heskey (ankle), Ashley Young (knee) and Luke Young (groin) going into the game.
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Source: Daily Mail
Source: Daily Mail