Martin Laursen, who has collected as many magnums of champagne for his performances this season as he has scored goals, will celebrate his new contract by supplying the drink for Aston Villa’s end-of-season party should Martin O’Neill’s team qualify for Europe.

The Denmark defender, who has scored six times this season and played in every Barclays Premier League game, signed a new 2½-year contract after proving that he is over the knee injuries that blighted his first three years at Villa Park in the wake of signing for £3 million from AC Milan.

Laursen, scheduled to play his 50th Premier League game away to Liverpool on Monday night, said: “The goals have given me massive personal satisfaction. I’ve always won a lot of headers defensively but I know I’ve not scored enough goals. Defenders always have the possibility of scoring goals when they go up for corners and we have been very good on set-pieces.”

Villa have scored more such goals than any other top-flight side this season to move level on points with Liverpool in their pursuit of European football. “I’m delighted to sign this new contract because this is a great club moving in the right direction,” Laursen, 30, said. “We’re playing some good attacking football and look like we’re going to score in every game.

“We’ve got some promising young players with the desire and the skill and the quality to do well. So I’m really happy to be a part of this. I would love to say [we could challenge Liverpool for fourth place] but let’s not get carried away.”

Laursen has responded to O’Neill’s management after being left to monitor his own fitness. “The manager trusts me and says he wants me playing on a Saturday,” he said. “The manager’s a winner. He gets big problems when we’re losing and we feel that, if we’re a goal down, there’s a real desperation to get back into the game.

“I don’t know how many bottles of champagne I’ve won but I’ve got them all at home. I’ll have a party and open them all if we get into Europe.”