Aston Villa captain Micah Richards has insisted that the team will battle until the end in a bid to secure Premier League survival.

Remi Garde's side are in trouble as they are at the bottom of the table, 10 points adrift of safety.

The Midlands outfit suffered their seventh league defeat of the season in Tuesday night's 2-0 loss to West Ham United.

From the 16th minute, the team had to play with 10 men after Jordan Ayew was sent off for elbowing Aaron Cresswell.

"We have the fighting spirit," Richards told the club's official website. "We have 14 games now and we will give 100% until the end. Until it's mathematically impossible, I will not rule us out. We know it will be hard. I am a realist too. I think we need three wins on the bounce and then things start to change.

"A lot of people have said that the players don't care. I think we showed at West Ham that we fight until the end - whether we have 11 or 10 men on the pitch. We did that, but unfortunately we didn't get anything out of the game."

Villa's next game is on Saturday against Norwich City at home.