Nolberto Solano has no doubts what Aston Villa require if they are to have a chance of qualifying for the Uefa Cup: pick up seven points from their final three matches or face another season in the European wilderness.
Despite dominating possession, Villa drew 1-1 at home to Bolton Wanderers on Saturday and the result means that they have forfeited a crucial six points from their last three matches at Villa Park.
Villa only need to finish in the top seven to return to the Uefa Cup but the auguries are not good. Their results at home in recent matches have been poor and could mean another season of under-achievement.
"This was another frustrating draw," Solano said. "We have dropped too many points, especially at home in recent games.
"We have played West Bromwich Albion [drew 1-1], Charlton Athletic [drew 0-0] and Bolton Wanderers and could have picked up nine points and we have ended up with only three.
"It is very close still for Europe. The chance is still there but we now have to make sure we take the points from these last three games. We are still in the race but, if we want to qualify for Europe, we know we need six or seven points from the last three matches.
"We have a massive game at Tottenham, one of our biggest rivals, next Sunday and we must come out on top in that one."
Villa manager David O'Leary, however, was left fuming that referee Uriah Rennie failed to award his side a last-minute penalty on Saturday after Ricardo Gardner appeared to chop down Ulises de la Cruz.
"We should have won by a mile, but I have just seen the video and I think the referee will be quite embarrassed when he sees that incident at the end of the game," said O'Leary. "It is absolutely embarrassing.
"Sam Allardyce [the Bolton manager] will be jumping for joy for taking a point from this but we have got ourselves to blame.
"You cannot keep creating chances like we have and keep missing them. We should have won this game."
O'Leary praised the performance of defender Martin Laursen, who defied a knee problem to shore up a Villa back four badly hit by absentees.
"Martin has not trained and is not match-fit but we had to have some height at the back, given the way Bolton play," he said. "They put the ball into your box a lot and it will be like a magnet to your head, but Martin did excellent for us."
