Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert has expressed his confidence that his team will retain their status as a Premier League club over the next seven matches.

Following their 2-1 defeat at home to Liverpool earlier today, Lambert's side occupy the final relegation place in the league table.

However, despite their lowly position, Lambert believes that Villa will still be in the top flight come the new campaign.

"We are playing well enough to win and I certainly have the belief that we will be fine," he told BBC Sport.

Meanwhile, with regards to the Liverpool encounter, Lambert said: "I thought we were excellent in the first half and looked threatening every time we went forward.

"Even in the second half we kept going, but it was really poor from our point of view the way we conceded the equaliser. We lost poor goals. But we had chances and we didn't look like a team down there at the bottom."

Next up for Villa is a trip to Stoke City on Saturday afternoon.