James Chester demands quick start for Aston Villa next season

The skipper is under no illusions as to the importance of a campaign he believes will be “massive” for the club.

Villa won just one of their opening 12 league games this term and though Steve Bruce’s arrival in October to replace the sacked Roberto Di Matteo heralded an improvement, they still finished more than 30 points off the automatic promotion places in 13th.

And Chester said: “It’s been proven in this division that if you make a good start you are going to be there or thereabouts at the end of the season.

“It is important, as players, that we come back in some shape to put in the hard work through July for the start of August.”

He added: “Next season is one I am looking forward to and one I am fully expecting to be a successful one. The squad we have here should not be finishing 13th and 30-odd points behind Brighton.

“What they have done only magnifies the disappointment of this season. This is an important summer for us. We need to make sure we are ready to hit the ground running next season.”

Bruce branded Villa’s final league position as “unacceptable” while owner Tony Xia has already made clear what he expects, tweeting that the club “needs results” next term.

The Beijing businessman’s first year at the helm following his £76.2million buy-out of Randy Lerner saw Villa spend big in the transfer market for what so far has been very little return.

“It’s not been the season we all wished for,” admitted Chester. “But this division is difficult and there has been an awful lot of change around the club.

“Maybe we could be forgiven for the way this season has gone. Next year is massive for us all.”