Aston Villa boss Tim Sherwood has backed his striker Christian Benteke to guide the club to Premier League safety this season.

The Belgium international has seven goals in his past five games under Sherwood including the hat-trick against QPR in an entertaining 3-3 draw on Tuesday.

When asked if Benteke can help Villa avoid the drop, Sherwood said: "That's the plan.

"It doesn't come much better than that. He's a good player, I have always said it and he's in a rich vein of form.

"It's fantastic for him to score the goals, it's just a shame we couldn't get the three points.

"It's not about what you deserve, it's about what you get and we got one point.

"This could be a vital point come the end of the season in the end, when you go so late into the game and Christian has had to pull that out the bag we're grateful."