Villa need 'hard work' to rebuild for next season

Aston Villa manager Natalia Arroyo said they need to "work as hard as possible" to bring the club back to where it wants to be next season.

Villa were just a point above the relegation spot in March but four successive victories have seen them jump up to ninth in the table.

They hope to extend their strong finish to the season when they face Brighton in their final match on Saturday (12:30 BST kick-off).

"We are step-by-step, with good results, building our identity and that is important," said Arroyo.

"We are happy at the moment but we need to do some bigger analysis of the season, and the season before, at what these inconsistent results are showing us.

"We will look to add different types of players and we are still in this process. I don't expect big signings or big decisions to be tomorrow.

"We need to be ready to bring the right players in to build the best project possible. We need to first rest, take the right analysis and then from then on work as hard as possible to bring Villa where we want to be - which is not suffering at the end, with the risk of being relegated."