Remi Garde courageous to take on Aston Villa challenge, says Slaven Bilic

It is claimed N’Zogbia will likely head to the US, with Villa prepared to pay off the remainder of his contract to get him out of the club.

But Garde admitted: “I have some ideas but we need a better situation than we are in today”.

The 49-year-old feels 10 wins in the second half of the campaign should be enough to make up the 10-point gap to safety and haul them out of trouble. Then we will start again in the next match.

The Villa manager is also working on a solution to boost his players fitness levels.

“We’re playing teams around us that we must win, they’re massive for us”.

“I’ve always believed in my ability and in the last couple of games I think I’ve done alright”.

“I am not very keen on statistics because they can say one thing and you can find another statistic to prove the opposite, so I am very careful with stats”.

The Claret and Blue Army boast of one victory in their past 13 games in all competitions, and now sit at the bottom of the Premier League log with seven points.

Andy Carroll, who missed the draw against Swansea with a thigh injury may return to the West Ham line-up for their match at Villa Park. They’re very efficient away.

He has been capped 31 times for Ghana since 2010, scoring 11 goals in the process.

Villa loanee Tom Cleverley scored in his third successive game as Sherwood’s men triumphed 1-0 at Villa Park when these two teams met back in May.

“You have a lot of duels and the rhythm and the pace is very high and I feel we have improved a lot”.

Only West Brom, Sunderland and Leicester have avoided relegation from the Premier League after occupying the bottom spot on Christmas Day, but Bilic said: “They have a chance”.

As we approach the halfway point of the season, the odds on the teams in the danger zone surviving have begun to shorten.

– Villa have failed to score in their last four Premier League matches on Boxing Day.

The Hammers have drawn their last three games 0-0 but Garde recognises they will be a tough hurdle to overcome.