Aston Villa defender Ron Vlaar has called upon his team to improve on the performance that they put in against West Ham United at the weekend.

The Villains controlled large parts of the encounter at Upton Park, but ended up losing the match 1-0 thanks to a goal from West Ham skipper Kevin Nolan.

Vlaar, who was making his Premier League debut in that fixture, has now turned his attention to his side's next match against Everton this Saturday.

"I was desperate to get off to a winning start but now we must look forward to the home game against Everton and hopefully my first game at Villa Park will be a victory," he told reporters.

"Against Everton we must do better. We started the game against West Ham well and played some nice football but we have to score and were unable to do that."

Weekend opponents Everton defeated Manchester United 1-0 last night.