Jacob Ramsey playing the long game in Aston Villa’s Euro hunt
Jacob Ramsey has warned Villa can’t afford to get ahead of themselves in the Premier League run-in as they chase European football.
The midfielder believes all is still to play for over the season’s final 12 matches but admitted Sunday’s 1-1 draw at West Ham, while a fair result, represented an opportunity missed to close the gap on teams above them in the table.
Villa sit 11th in the standings, four points behind seventh-placed Brighton, who they host on the final day of the campaign, with matches against fellow contenders Brentford, Fulham and Chelsea to come before that next month.
Ramsey hopes there will be plenty riding on each game but conceded Villa can’t look past their next fixture, at home to relegation-threatened Bournemouth.
He said: “It’s one match at a time, exactly that. We still have to play Brentford away, Fulham at home and Brighton at home the last game of the season.
“Hopefully we can get some points on the board and those three fixtures can be vital to where we want to get to.”
Ramsey continued: “We’ve been in the position before where we could have got into the top half, two or three times this season and we have slipped up every time.
“Our aim is to push up the table. You look at teams like Brighton, Brentford and Fulham and we want to be in that mix.
“Sunday was another opportunity to close that gap and really, we are a bit in between at the moment. Teams below can still catch us if we go on a poor run but if we go on a good run, we can catch those above us. We have to focus on ourselves and not worry too much about anyone else.”
Ramsey believes patience and persistence are paying off for Villa’s players try to perfect a new possession-based style under boss Unai Emery.
The 21-year-old admitted things have not always been easy since the Spaniard’s arrival but the results continue to be impressive, with Villa having taken 23 points from 13 matches to climb away from relegation danger and into the race for Europe.
“It’s the way the boss wants to play,” he said.
“Sometimes, at home especially, the supporters want us to attack the opposition as soon as possible.
“But the boss has been clear, right from when he came in, that he wants us to take time on the ball.
“It has taken time to get used to, but we’ve got to. It’s been difficult at times. I’ve played on the left, on the right. It’s taken a while but I think with each game everyone is getting that bit more comfortable and with 12 games left, hopefully we can keep pushing up the table.”
