Aston Villa manager Alex McLeish is confident that his team can snatch points off their rivals in their upcoming Premier League fixtures.

The Midlands side are scheduled to face Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool in their next three league meetings while they sit in 15th spot in the table.

"When you least expect it teams can take points, so why can't we?" said McLeish. "I don't think there is any reason why we should believe that we can't and we will certainly be trying to do anything we can to get as many points as possible in those challenging games.

"There is not a lot of difference and we have got to look upwards. Certainly we feel looking back on the season there were some wasted opportunities.

"But we are where we are and we must challenge ourselves to climb the table. That has got to be the challenge to the players - let's try and stay unbeaten for as long as we can."

Villa have taken just one win from their last six domestic matches.