Martin O’Neill believes that it is premature to write off Aston Villa’s chances of qualifying for the Champions League because of their mediocre home form. The Villa manager is not concerned that his team seem to have developed a habit of following up a good away result by struggling to overcome supposedly lesser opponents at Villa Park.

Bolton Wanderers, with three successive away wins, visit today as Villa, having secured a 3-2 victory away to Everton on Sunday, attempt to buck the trend. Over the past month Villa have collected only two points from a possible nine at home, but they could return to fourth place today.

O’Neill accepts that there “is less space in behind” when teams visit Villa Park and play with limited ambition, whereas away from home, especially against teams such as Everton and Arsenal, who are eager to attack, the capabilities of Gabriel Agbonlahor and Ashley Young come to the fore.

“We’ve been playing splendidly away from home, counter-attacking at great pace,” O’Neill said. “We encounter a different set of problems at home, where, ironically, our best performance recently was probably against Manchester United, who are obviously an attack-minded team. But the onus is on us to break teams down. If we’re not good enough to do that, then we wouldn’t deserve anything.”

O’Neill, who may have to play with a lone striker again today because John Carew is out with a back injury, does not believe that, because they have won only three home games, Villa cannot finish in the top four. “It’s too early to make that judgment,” he said. “At the moment, I don’t think it’s as big an issue as people make out.”