Birmingham Mail: Ron Vlaar is determined to make up for his disappointing debut defeat when he plays in front of the Villa Park faithful for the first time this weekend. The Dutch defender, nicknamed Concrete Ron, produced an encouraging performance in the 1-0 loss at West Ham, but his new team lacked cutting edge at the other end of the pitch.

Birmingham Mail: Charles N'Zogbia admits he must start scoring and creating more as Villa strive to add a ruthless streak to their encouraging approach play. N'Zogbia provided only two goals and four assists in a disappointing first season in claret and blue following his £9.5 million move from Wigan last summer.

Birmingham Mail: Eamonn Deacy's 1981 title winning team-mates - and boss Ron Saunders - turned out to pay tribute to the late Villa hero in Galway on Saturday. Saunders managed a Villa Old Stars team which included Tony Morley, Ken McNaught, Colin Gibson, Allan Evans and Des Bremner for a memorial match.

Mirror: Paul Lambert is ready to pay £2.5million and offer Stephen Warnock to lure Martin Olsson from Blackburn. Aston Villa boss Lambert will rival stoke in the battle to sign the Swedish international, who has handed in a transfer request at Ewood Park.

Best Of The Rest

The Sun: Emmanuel Adebayor hopes to complete his £5million move to Spurs this week.

Mirror: Arsenal will not sign a like-for-like replacement for Alex Song - because Arsene Wenger is so convinced Jack Wilshere is on his way back.

BBC Sport: Robin van Persie started life at Manchester United with a defeat as Everton produced an outstanding performance to deservedly claim victory at Goodison Park.

*The extracts on this page are taken from various newspapers and media outlets. They do not necessarily reflect the views of Aston Villa.