Martin O'Neill has identified Everton as the yardstick that Aston Villa must strive to emulate in terms of challenging in Europe.O'Neill, whose side entertain Sunderland on Saturday, has been impressed with the way David Moyes has slowly but surely improved the quality and quantity of the players at his disposal.

As a result the Toffees have been able to combine a successful Premier League campaign with a lengthy run in the UEFA Cup which only ended last week when they were beaten on penalties by Fiorentina.

In contrast, O'Neill has one of the smallest squads in the top flight and he holds up Everton as the example Villa should try to follow over the next couple of years.

O'Neill said: "Overall, we have been fortunate this season with injuries and if we qualified for European football, we would have to add to the squad.

"If you draw any comparisons, Everton now have real strength in depth whereas, even when they qualified for the Champions League a few years ago, they might not have had that strength in depth.

"David Moyes' squad has got stronger and stronger and it has a depth to it - and that is what we would be looking to achieve at Aston Villa. We haven't got that at the moment.

"If you looked at the recent game in Fiorentina, Andy Johnson wasn't even in the starting line-up which would have been unheard of 18 month ago. They now have that strength.

"I think Everton, because of their excellent UEFA Cup run, have improved as a club and their players have improved. If you could draw some comparison with that, it is where you would want to be heading."

Villa have stumbled in taking only two points from the last three games but O'Neill is refusing to give up on attaining European football with eight games still to go.

He said: "We are not out of the race. I know Everton and Liverpool have opened up a considerable gap which means there is less margin for error than ever before.

"We need to finish the season like last season. We are now down to the last eight games. We are going to have to win the majority of matches.

"There is no reason why we can't be in the shake-up. We have still got Everton play and also Everton have to play Liverpool.

"But there is no point in talking about something which might develop in three or four weeks' time. We have got to absolutely focus on the next game."

Defender Olof Mellberg is ruled out of the clash with the Black Cats while he serves a one match suspension for his sending-off against Portsmouth last weekend.

O'Neill is keeping his fingers crossed that his likely replacement, Craig Gardner, overcomes the back problem which forced him to miss the trip to Fratton Park.

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