MacAllister: Villa won´t rest easy

Aston Villa assistant manager Gary McAllister has targeted three wins out of three to ensure his sides’s Premier League survival.

McAllister will take charge of the side for the third time at home to Wigan on Saturday in the continuing absence of manager Gerard Houllier, who was recently in hospital with heart problems.

Villa have already crossed the magical 40 point barrier and are six points clears of the relegation zone, but MacAllister said they cannot afford to take any chances.

“Everybody is looking at the numbers at the bottom of the league and asking what the magic number is going to be to stay up,” he said.

“I do not know but we have got nine points to play for. That is our target and we have got to be looking to win all three games.”

“Going to The Emirates to play Arsenal is obviously going to be difficult and we have an in-form Liverpool side yet to come here so there are some good games left for us to be involved in.”

The club’s long-term managerial position is not set in stone, but McAllister said he was just focusing on the immediate future.

“I’ve got a job to do and my concern certainly in the games before Gerard had a little bit of a problem was that we had enough points to pull away from the bottom,” MacAllister said.

“Now it is just purely getting Villa as high up the table as we can with the nine points left.”

“The main focus is purely the club and getting it into a better position than it’s in at the moment.”

“The key thing is that everything here is in place for the club to move forward. Everything that they do is second to none and there’s a touch of class about the place.”

Midfielder Stephen Ireland has returned from a loan spell at Newcastle, but is missing with a thigh strain and is McAllister’s only injury problem.