Villas can't panic now – Karim El Ahmadi

The claret and blues have made an indifferent start to the campaign and are currently only one point above the drop zone in 17th ahead of this weekend's clash with Norwich.

And while Morocco international El Ahmadi insisted that there is no need to panic at Villa's current plight, he is keen to climb away from the bottom three quickly.

"It's mentally a place we don't want to be, also if we lose on Saturday it would not be good but we have confidence," said El Ahmadi.

"It's eight games, but the most important thing is that we believe in ourselves and as a team that we can win games at this level. There's a lot of talent in the squad, so we can't panic now, but we have to be aware that we must win.

"You saw Norwich beat Arsenal so in this league anything can happen. We have to be aware that we need the points on Saturday to be in front of Norwich.

"If you see the games we played, it's only in the Everton match where the opposition were much better than us. In the last three games, we could have beaten Albion and if we'd scored first against Tottenham it might have been a different result."

"At Fulham we were heading for 0-0 but if you see the goal, that cannot happen, especially in the Premier League. We have to be aware we have to do everything for the points."

El Ahmadi acknowledged that the game against Norwich has additional significance for Villa boss Paul Lambert who will face his old club, but that the three points are the main priority.

He added: "I heard from a lot of people that the manager wants to win so that we can look up higher in the table. The most important thing is that we play a game that we have to win and I think the manager also thinks like that.

"I think every game we want to win also for the manager but we do it as a team, as a club. We work for each other, that's the most important thing. We just see it as a game we have to win."