Villa thriving without Barry: O´Neill

Aston Villa boss Martin O’Neill believes his side have adjusted to life without former skipper Gareth Barry, now a Manchester City player following his summer move.

Villa have defied predictions they would struggle this season by winning four of their opening six Premier League matches ahead of Barry’s return to Villa Park with City on Monday.

O’Neill said: “If you asked me ‘would we still rather have Gareth around here?’ then the answer would be ‘definitely, absolutely.’

“But Gareth has moved on to Manchester City this summer and I think we have made a shift ourselves.

“As our team starts to take shape eventually in the next couple of months, we are hoping his loss will not be as severe as we were certainly expecting early on.”

O’Neill expects Barry to be fired up on his return to a club where he spent 12 years and made 400 plus appearances.

“But it’s not just about Gareth,” O’Neill added. “City have plenty of weapons. For example, Craig Bellamy was fantastic for us when I was manager of Celtic and he is playing with a lot of confidence.

“Then they’ve got the likes of Carlos Tevez, Martin Petrov and Emmanuel Adebayor.”