Michael Owen says Aston Villa are ‘on the verge of something special’ under Steven Gerrard

Michael Owen believes Aston Villa can achieve special things under the helm of Steven Gerrard.

The West Midlands side took their third win on the bounce, with a comfortable 3-0 victory over Leeds on Thursday.

Though it looks like they are on no more that a safe mid-table finish this season, Owen believes they can push on for bigger and better things next campaign.

He told Amazon Prime after the game: ‘When Stevie took over they were floundering.

‘They always had good players but they had a good transfer window, they have the basis of a good team and added a couple of players. 

‘It sounds like the club has a lot of ambition, sounds like the players love Stevie and the coaching staff.

Michael Owen believes Aston Villa could achieve European qualification next season

‘It just feels like a club on the verge of something quite special. I think this season would be early considering the start they had but next season I could see them squeezing into Europe.’

Gerrard left Rangers for the Aston Villa job in November, after the club had sacked Dean Smith after a run of five straight defeats.

After a positive start, Villa had another tricky run of form in which they won only one game out of seven, between Boxing Day and their 1-0 defeat to Watford last month.

Since then, they have bounced back with three straight victories over Brighton, Southampton and now Leeds.

Owen said that Villa are on the ‘verge of something special’ under his former Liverpool team-mate Steven Gerrard

Two of their new additions scored during the 3-0 win at Elland Road on Thursday.

Phillipe Coutinho scored his fourth goal of the season before Matty Cash netted to make it 2-0.

Calum Chambers who arrived from Arsenal in January, scored a brilliant third to push Villa up to ninth in the standings.

Former Leeds goalkeeper Paul Robinson, said: ‘Villa had a game plan they stuck to it. And they didn’t have to be that effective, Leeds were extremely poor again. 

‘We saw it against Tottenham, really poor, nothing’s changed. Saw against Leicester defensively they looked stronger. Today they looked awful again. Looked lacking of confidence, lacking of leadership and Villa were good.’