Aston Villa manager Remi Garde has claimed that his team "collapsed" in the second half of their Premier League match against Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.
The Midlands outfit suffered their 19th defeat of the season at the hands of City, who ran out 4-0 winners on Saturday afternoon.
Villa are rooted to the bottom of the table, nine points adrift of safety with nine games left to turn things around.
"We collapsed totally in the second half after a good first half," BBC Sport quotes Garde as saying. "The gameplan was to defend well as long as we could, but as soon as they scored we collapsed again.
"The first 45 minutes was not entertaining but we knew it was the only solution for us. We had one chance in the first 45, and I told the players if we played like that we might get another.
"We can [stay up] but we have to be realistic - if we play like we did in the first half, we have a chance, but if we play like in the second half, it is difficult."
Villa have won just three of their 29 league games this season.
Danielle Joynson
