Steven Gerrard urges Aston Villa to build on Manchester City draw
Steven Gerrard has urged Villa to use Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Manchester City as a springboard up the Premier League table.
Villa halted a run of three straight defeats and climbed out of the bottom three thanks to an impressive, battling display against the champions.
Gerrard is desperate to maintain the momentum as they prepare to visit rock bottom Leicester this weekend.
He said: “The game at this level is very dangerous. If we go into Leicester next week and think just because we’ve performed well this week it guarantees us anything next week, it doesn’t.
“We’ve got to reset and remember what we had to put into Saturday collectively to get a decent outcome. Hopefully we can get the same or better come next week. We have that base now.
“It’s important we build, we take the positives and the confidence and the belief from the performance.”
Leon Bailey’s 74th minute strike cancelled out Erling Haaland’s opener as Villa halted a run of nine straight defeats against City in all competitions.
The result eased some of the pressure mounting on Gerrard following a poor start to the season.
He said: “Outside of Aston Villa there would have been very few who believed we could take something from the game. That is probably understandable if you look at our recent results.
“But sometimes in my position as a player and in the short time I’ve been coaching, that can be a help, where you can use that as motivation to galvanise your group, stick together.
“That’s the reason the point feels nice right now because everyone on the outside didn’t give us a chance. The players showed when we are at it and when we get a lot of things right we can cause any teams problems.”
