Villa star: It could have been seven

Wilfred Bouma has admitted Villa were lucky not to lose 7-0 to Manchester United.

Villa were a sorry second best to the champions-elect as they suffered their heaviest defeat under boss Martin O'Neill.

"It could have been 7-0. That's the positive thing," said Bouma.

"It's hard to take because we've shown we can make life difficult for the top teams, but not Manchester United.

"We started well. But then you look at the (Cristiano Ronaldo) goal we conceded from the corner, unfortunately the ball hit my body and although I could do nothing about it my feeling is I was involved in that moment.

"Suddenly it was at the feet of a quality player – but I don't even think quality players can do what he did.

"Only the best in the world can do that. To get the amount of pace he did on the ball was unbelievable.

"So we were 1-0 down and although we were still in the game.

"We had our moments but we gave a lot of chances away which has not been the case this season, and the good thing was that it was only 4-0."