Aston Villa’s James Collins: We should not be anywhere near the bottom half of the league

James Collins of Aston Villa (Getty Images)

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Aston Villa defender James Collins believes that the club can put this season’s disappointment behind them to be successful next year.

Villa have underachieved all season and have at times looked in danger of relegation, but Sunday’s victory against Arsenal ensured that the club were safe from the threat of dropping down to the Championship.

Welsh international Collins believes his team has underachieved this season but they can have a much better time of it next campaign if they keep all of their players at the club.

He told reporters: “We have a fantastic squad here, so obviously we would like to keep all of our best players and move on next season.

“We shouldn’t be anywhere near the bottom half of the league.

“But to put in a performance and get a win at the Emirates is massive, and we will take a lot of confidence out of it.

“We know we haven’t been to the levels we were last season, but I think we showed signs of it again at Arsenal.

“We will take confidence out of this, we have a big game against Liverpool and hopefully that will help us next season.”

Collins believes that with players such as Darren Bent at the club for a full season they can only kick on and improve.

“Everyone knows what Darren is about, he is going to score goals,” the defender continued.

“Look at his chances to goals scored record and he is right up there.

“Darren is somebody we needed in the team to score goals and he has brought that.

“We knew last season we needed someone who could get 10, 15, maybe even 20 goals a season.

“Next season hopefully we will have a full pre-season and kick on.”