Villa allay Mellberg fears

Aston Villa have moved to allay fears that central defender Olof Mellberg will require an operation to cure his Achilles problem.

The Swedish international has been struggling with the injury in recent weeks and was left out of Wednesday’s Worthington Cup victory at Oxford.

But Villa are optimistic that Mellberg will be able to continue playing and he is set to be fit for Saturday’s home Premiership game with Fulham.

A Villa spokesman said: “Olof has rested in a bid to improve the situation for Saturday. An operation is not part of our thinking at the moment.”

Mellberg has been Villa’s most consistent player this season and manager, Graham Taylor, admitted: “He has hardly put a foot wrong for us since he came back from the World Cup finals.”

Meanwhile Villa striker Dion Dublin has branded the finishing power of his side during the current campaign as “useless”.

Villa have scored only seven goals in 12 Premiership matches this season and just 18 in all competitions.

Dublin said: “We are all battling hard. We are all trying our hardest but our quality of football has not been as good as it should be.

“Our end product has been useless. We have not put the ball in the net. We know that.

“It is down to the forwards mainly but other people have to chip in too. We have got to take a look at ourselves, do some finishing sessions and get it right on Saturdays.”