Laursen pleased by clean sheets

Skipper Martin Laursen has been at Villa Park since 2004

Aston Villa captain Martin Laursen says his side's recent defensive solidity shows they are on the way to competing with the best in the Premier League.

Villa have kept successive clean sheets in beating Arsenal and drawing with Manchester United, and risen to fourth in the table in the process.

"It's very encouraging," Laursen told BBC WM.

"They were two really good results and [we've had] a good start to the season so we can be really pleased."

He added: "We hope we can [maintain a Champions League place] and we'll do all we can to do that," he said.

"The competition within the squad is good, but it's still only November."