Aston Villa boss Paul Lambert says he's facing the toughest time of his career.

Villa are not safe from the drop after defeat to Crystal Palace.

"I think I can absolutely turn it round (in the long-term)," said Lambert, "Everybody who knows me from my playing career and as a manager knows I want to win. As a player I won some nice things and as a manager I've won some things.

"But this is definitely the biggest challenge of my career. All I can do is my best and hopefully (the fans) like it. I also understand in football you can be good one minute and not so good the next but that's football and that's the way it works.

"It's something that's always there and won't go away, that feeling from football fans. But since I've been here the Villa fans have been excellent with me because they've seen some results that never went for us and stuck with it."