Tom Cleverley calls for Aston Villa response

Tom Cleverley has urged his Aston Villa teammates to stay positive following their narrow defeat to Manchester City last weekend.

The Villans fought back from two goals down at the Etihad Stadium, but a late Fernandinho strike gave City a 3-2 win in the Premier League encounter.

With Everton making the trip to Villa Park this Saturday, Cleverley is eager to see a response from Villa as they battle to avoid the drop.

"We can definitely take confidence from the display," the midfielder told the club's official website. "Hopefully we can do the job this weekend. We made some errors, but we are taking confidence from this and not letting it knock us.

"We have to take belief from our performance. We can't let our heads drop. We have simply to look at the last three performances against Tottenham, Liverpool and Man City and if we keep performing like that consistently, we should have no problems."

Cleverley, who is currently on a season-long loan from Manchester United, scored his first goal for the club during their defeat to City.