Aston Villa's Pepe Reina’s ready for ‘three cup finals’

The former Liverpool goalkeeper, signed on loan from AC Milan until the end of the season, called for discipline and togetherness as the claret and blues look to climb out of the drop zone.

Villa face a triple-header of six-pointers against fellow strugglers in their next three Premier League games, starting with a trip to Brighton on Saturday

That is followed by a home clash with resurgent Watford on Tuesday night. A Carabao Cup semi- final second leg clash with Leicester follows before another trip to the south coast to face Bournemouth in what could become a season-defining period for Villa. And Reina says he is sure Villa have what it takes to ensure they remain in the top flight.

He said: “I need to make sure that we all know we are capable of maintaining the status in the Premier League.

“I want them (his team-mates) to believe this from the bottom of our hearts. We need to play disciplined, together, remain determined.

“These kind of things, they need to be our basics. I think it’s a great dressing room I’ve been told, they are great lads, now we need the mentality to be strong, be ready for a good battle in the last games.

“It’s a giant opening, we have three finals coming... in the league we have three important fixtures now, we need to do well because there are people fighting with us for relegation zone, we need to get points.”