Attacking star explains how mentality shift helped spark Aston Villa resurgence

Wednesday’s 3-0 win at Brighton was the sixth on the spin in all competitions for Unai Emery’s team, who are now firmly back in contention for a top-five Premier League finish. 

January recruits Marcus Rashford, Marco Asensio and Donyell Malen were all on target at the Amex Stadium and Rogers, who set up the first two goals, says every player is ready to attack the run-in as Villa continue to fight on three fronts.

“We have so many players who can come off the bench and make a difference and two did again on Wednesday,” the attacking star told VillaTV.

“That is what it is all about. It is all about fresh legs and about who is the best man for the job at the time.

“It is a next man up mentality. That is what we are doing at the moment and it is working really well.”

Villa had struggled for consistency in the league for much of the season and risked falling out of the race for Europe when they were beaten 4-1 at Crystal Palace in February.

But they have since won at Brentford and Brighton without conceding and Rogers explained the change in mindset boss Emery demanded of his squad.

Villa will aim to make it seven wins in a row when they host third-placed Nottingham Forest on Saturday and Rogers said: “We kind of drew a line a few weeks ago about what happened before and we started fresh with the new players we got in January.

“We are on a good run right now. We are feeling good, we are feeling confident every game we go into and it is just about continuing and seeing where it takes us.

“We have a lot of different games in a lot of different competitions coming up and it is just about being consistent and being focused. Everyone is ready.”