Isaiah Osbourne is ready to fight for his place at Aston Villa.

Osbourne was rewarded for his breakthrough season with a new Villa deal in December - tying him to the club until June 2009.

He told the club's website: "I was obviously delighted to sign the new deal. I came back last summer determined this was going to be my year, but I don't think I expected things to go so well. It's been amazing.

"The gaffer will want to bring in new players and that means there will be more competition for places. But I'm not worried about that. It's a good thing to have new challenges and I'm ready for it.

"If you want to play in the Premiership, you have to be ready to fight for your place every single week and I am ready to do that."