Aston Villa to sign defenders

Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill has revealed that he could be in the market for defensive cover during the summer. Olof Mellberg is heading out of the club to Juventus, and the Villa boss is keen to make sure the club make moves to replace the Swedish defender.

"Defensively it's something we'll try and put right. The opposition score too many goals as far as we're concerned," O'Neill told the club's official website.

"If we're going to progress and continue progressing in the manner we're doing, which is pretty pleasing, we're going to have to concede less goals.

"I know you can look at it and say four of them were in one game and four in another match, but the fact is that if you're prone to letting a goal in a game there's a fair chance that when it tots up at the end it will cost you.

"We cannot complain about things at the other end, although we had gone three games without scoring before Saturday. Our goalscoring has been excellent and they haven't all come from set-pieces."