John Carew expects Aston Villa winger Ashley Young to be a marked man after his fine recent form - but is sure his team-mate can handle it.Young has made massive strides since his £9.65million move from Watford during the January transfer window and earned his first England cap in the friendly international against Austria last month.

His threat has been recognised by Villa's rivals, and Portsmouth often detailed two defenders to mark Young in trying to nullify his impact during last week's 3-1 success.

But striker Carew has faith in Young to take the close attention in his stride as he prepares for Saturday's Premier League match at Sunderland.

The Norway international said: "Ashley got a lot of attention against Portsmouth, and his ability has been noticed. Opposing teams are becoming more aware of him.

"But he is still doing his job and he put in a very good performance against Portsmouth, even though the conditions were very difficult because they were a very physical side.

"They normally couldn't stop him without a foul, which resulted in yellow cards or a penalty.

"He will have to get used to teams putting more defenders on him, but it is not nothing he can't handle. He should take it as a compliment, and that will make him even better as a player."

Carew is urging Villa to put together another winning streak, after a run of four successive victories was halted by home defeats to Arsenal and Pompey.

The former Lyon player said: "The public would have deserved to see even better performances at home. We are giving our best but we want to give the public the pleasure at Villa Park, like we have done away.

"We have have achieved some good away results but we want to also show victories to our public who turn up at Villa Park. It makes me a bit sad we haven't done that so often, but I am sure we will put it right.

"We are still in a good position in the Premier League, so there is no reason to hang our heads. We had a good winning streak recently - and we have to try for that again."

Midfielder Stiliyan Petrov is Villa's main fitness doubt for the trip to the Stadium of Light, with the hamstring injury suffered against Arsenal a fortnight ago. If he is ruled out, Craig Gardner is again set to deputise.

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