Cash plays down title talk for now

Matty Cash insists Aston Villa must wait until after Christmas to start talking about a title challenge.

The defender scored the opener in Saturday's dramatic last-gasp victory against leaders Arsenal, which left Villa three points behind the Gunners.

Emi Buendia scored with the last kick of the game as Villa made it 13 wins from their last 15 games in all competitions.

They sit third, behind Arsenal and Manchester City, having won nine of their last 10 in the Premier League.

Cash said: "It's hard to say [about a title challenge]. It's like 'wow' when you look where we are at the minute, obviously we're three points behind Arsenal.

"We're in a fantastic position, but we're not even at Christmas yet. So I think we've got to have a bit of Christmas dinner first before we think about that.

"Obviously, it's great to be in this position but we've got loads of football left.

"We want to keep being consistent and demanding and hopefully we can have a good run."

Villa have beaten Arsenal and Manchester City at home this season and travel to the Emirates to finish the year on 30 December.

"It [Saturday] was a massive test. I think they're probably one of the best teams in Europe," said Poland international Cash.

"You're looking at the Champions League, they're flying the Premier League. They're probably favourites to win it.

"So it was definitely a big challenge for us to see where we were at. We were probably saying the same thing when we played against City as well and managed to beat them.

"But it's still early days. Arsenal are a fantastic team and are going to be up there all season, I think.

"But it's good to sort of go toe-to-toe with them sort of teams and see where we're at."