Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert targets third straight home win

Paul Lambert is aiming to lead Aston Villa to three home wins in a row for the first time in seven years when they host Stoke City on Saturday afternoon.

The West Midlands outfit have beaten Chelsea and Norwich City in their last two matches at Villa Park, where they have not record three consecutive victories since 2007.

Lambert is astonished by this statistic, and keen to end it now that recent excellent performances, including what the Scotsman considers to be a shock win over the league leaders, have given his side the opportunity to do so.

"It's taken seven years of trying," Lambert told reporters. 'When you think of the players this club has had, and they've had great teams here, been in the top six, been in Europe not that long ago, it's been a long, long time.

"Seven years - the fact they've still not done it is incredible. It is a long time for this club not to have done that. We're not talking about three or four months, we're talking years, and that's too long for that to happen for a club of this size."

"I guarantee everybody, to a man, thought Chelsea would win. I don't think anybody would have thought we would have a chance of winning three successive home league games.Now we've an opportunity to do it and get rid of that seven-year thing."

Villa's home form has taken them nine points clear of the Premier League relegation zone.