Under fire Aston Villa boss Steven Gerrard calls for aggression

Gerrard, in desperate need of a win to ease pressure on his position, is convinced his team will return from Craven Cottage with a victory if they replicate the performance from the first hour of Sunday’s 2-0 defeat to Chelsea.

Villa’s best two showings of the season have come in matches against teams from the Premier League’s ‘big six’ and Gerrard said: “Mentality-wise, I think the players approach those games with a little bit of fear in a positive way, where they think we have to take ourselves to a certain level intensity-wise.

“That’s what we’re trying to drive out of the players consistently because if they can find that level, against the sides where we should be taking wins instead of draws, we’ll get there.”