Sherwood readying unfit Villa for 'mini pre-season'

Tim Sherwood bemoaned Aston Villa's lack of fitness following a 1-0 Premier League defeat to Stoke City on Saturday.

Marko Arnautovic's 55th-minute strike settled the game in Stoke's favour after previously seeing a first-half effort chalked off for offside.

The result means Villa still have not won in the league since the opening day of the season and keeps Sherwood's men in the bottom three with four points from eight games.

And Sherwood told BBC Sport: "I am very disappointed, we needed to win the game at home to a team that we could have leapfrogged.

"We failed to capitalise and it was not good enough. I think a draw would have been a fair result, both teams were average.

"The situation is getting worse, it is alright saying ifs, buts and maybes, but we are not picking up the wins and that is why we are down near the bottom of the league.

"We are all in this together but as the manager I take all the responsibility.

"I will use the international break to get my players fitter because they are not fit enough yet to play the way I want them to play. For some of them it will be like a mini pre-season."