Gabriel Agbonlahor believes Aston Villa are capable of going to the next level after claiming opponents are scared of the attacking options available to Martin O'Neill.
The England Under-21 striker insists Villa are making progress despite equalling their achievement of 12 months ago in finishing sixth in the Barclays Premier League.
"I think it was a better season than last season because clubs were more scared of us, especially coming to Villa Park, but also when we went to their grounds," Agbonlahor said.
"Clubs did fear us. We went to the top four away and caused them problems. We went to Manchester United and did that and it was the same with Arsenal away.
"Now We just have to try and continue that next season.
"Teams were more defensive against us, dropped back a lot. A lot of them played with effectively a back five and just tried to defend against us.
"It was a credit to our attacking force."
Agbonlahor is optimistic Villa can mount a sustained challenge for a Champions League spot next season.
He said: "It will be hard to go to the next step but we are capable of doing it. There is a lot of quality at the club and I am sure the gaffer will look to bring more in."
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yes gabby !after your performances in the latter half of the season you need more than just pace.....you need a football brain!!try losing your marker...find space...look up more and go past the opposition !not through them!otherwise you will end up in the championship with the baggies with ya red boots and lamboughini gathering dust!!!
MON is scared of big names!!!!! he dont know who to sign
gabby u ccan be very lazy at times!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
sign some world class players and stop lazy and unprided ego from current villa players and maybe
Roger I. is absolutely right, it is a big change for Villa to have spare attackers on the bench and not spare defenders. We cannot defend a one goal lead by sitting back. We ought to be able to do that - but the results prove that we can't. Stoke at home United and Fulham away should have been seven points if we had kept on attacking just as we had earlier in the matches. We got one point thanks to shots deflected off Villa players packed in their own area.
I agree with what aggy says but when we go ahead as we did against man utd. we must learn to keep attacking and not just defend the lead, for years now not just last season Villa have not been able to defend against a team who attack them, the best form of defence is attack, and we now have the players to do just that.
Well said Gabby, but as teams become more defensive against us you will have to have a little more guile and skill in your locker.
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