James Milner has challenged Aston Villa to bounce back and win at Liverpool on Monday.
Winger wants Villa to bounce back from opening two defeats
James Milner has challenged Aston Villa to bounce back and win at Liverpool on Monday to get their season up and running.
Villa have tasted defeat in both games so far this season - a 2-0 home loss to Wigan followed by the 1-0 defeat at Rapid Vienna in the Europa League qualifier.
So Milner would be forgiven for not relishing a trip to Anfield - where Villa were hammered 5-0 last season - but the winger is up for the challenge.
He said: "I don't think it's a good or a bad thing that we've got Liverpool next. It doesn't really matter. You've got to play everyone at some point in the season.
Bounce back
"Obviously they had a bad result at the start of the season (at Tottenham) but they've come back strongly with a win against Stoke so we've got to bounce back quickly as well.
"It's never an easy place to go but it's early in the season and we need to find our form.
"We showed signs of that against Rapid, when we passed the ball around well, so we just need to get into our stride a bit quicker.
"It's a hard game whenever you play at Anfield but it's up to us to go there and play better than we have done in the two previous games and keep improving."
Disappointing day
He added: "We obviously had a disappointing day at Liverpool last year.
"With the quality we've got here, we should never lose by that margin so it would be nice if we could bounce back and get all three points.
"We're a good team away from home as we proved at the Emirates Stadium last year so we have to go out and put on a performance.
"It's important and you always want to get your first points on the board as early as possible.
"We didn't do that on the first day so now we have the chance to go to Liverpool and get a good result."
