Former Aston Villa captain Stiliyan Petrov is confident they'll beat the drop.

Petrov, who retired last year after battling acute leukaemia, insisted Villa will maintain their top flight status.

"The players, the manager, everybody at Aston Villa and the fans believe they have got the class to stay up," said the 34-year-old, who made 219 appearances and scored 12 goals for Villa.

"They proved that last season. Obviously the club took a different path in the last two seasons, they've brought in a lot of young players and a lot of inexperienced Premier League players and it's really difficult for them.

"That will take time. At Cardiff, it was not a surprise because every club down the bottom is fighting for every single point and that's going to be from now until the end of the season."