Tyrone Mings cut a frustrated figure after Sunday's 2-0 reverse to Tottenham Hotspur and is determined to ensure Aston Villa respond in the right manner to get their campaign back on track.
Villa fell to defeat courtesy of Carlos Vinicius’ close-range finish in the first half and Harry Kane’s penalty midway through the second period.
Centre-back Mings, who now goes away on international duty with England, was left to rue the manner of the goals in particular which ultimately proved the difference.
It ensured the Villans, who are 10th in the Premier League table, are now winless in four matches and have secured just one victory in seven.
But Mings knows an evolving Villa side must remain positive and stay together to ensure the recent run is replaced with a return to the club’s form over the first half of the season.
Reflecting on the defeat to Spurs, Mings told VillaTV: “Really frustrating, really frustrating
“I felt like it was a game we could have got points out of, I felt like it was a game we could have won going into it.
“I think we started well, we started the first 30 minutes really bright, really positive, couldn’t quite get the ball in the goal.
“But that’s no criticism of our front players, they’ve been excellent, it’s just sometimes it goes for you and sometimes it doesn’t.
“I think we defended as a team okay for large spells, but the two goals we conceded were avoidable and that’s probably what hurts the most.
“The fact that in this league it’s so hard to score, so hard to win games, so hard to get a point, that if we give the opponents the upper hand, it’s a very big mountain to climb.
“So it’s frustrating and it hurts and we have to continue to show up, we have to continue to be positive, we have to continue to be good team-mates and there’s no hiding from that.”
“The Premier League is tough and we’re a team that is evolving, we’re a team who are growing, a team who are learning, but we absolutely have to continue to stay positive and make sure the season doesn’t fizzle out."
Tyrone Mings
Mings continued: “We can’t let our season fizzle out, we can’t let what has been a poor run of results define our season.
“I think every team goes through it, we’ve had such a positive start to the season that we haven’t known too much adversity.
“We’ve had a game where we’ve lost and then, more often than not, we’ve come back and won or got a positive result.
“Certainly results recently haven’t been great, we’ve been in games we should have taken more points from but, at the same time, earlier on in the season we probably picked up points where we probably didn’t deserve to pick up points by being good defensively and nicking goals.
“The Premier League is tough and we’re a team that is evolving, we’re a team who are growing, a team who are learning, but we absolutely have to continue to stay positive and make sure the season doesn’t fizzle out.
“But this game definitely hurts.”
