Aston Villa boss Dean Smith is delighted with the team's progress this season.

Villa only stayed up on the final day of last season, but relegation seems like a distant memory this campaign thanks to a fine run of form that has lifted them up to ninth.

“Maintaining our status as a Premier League club was important to us, with the work that we put in from March," said Smith.

“We added five quality players and now we feel that we're in a really good place.

"I'm really happy with where we are as a football club. We need to keep progressing and developing, day in, day out."

One of the five "quality players" Dean Smith is talking about is Ollie Watkins, who has scored eight goals in 15 appearances since joining from Brentford for a club record fee of £28m over the summer.

“I said from the start that Ollie would bring us a different dimension in terms of how we press and work without the ball. He enables us to defend higher up the pitch," said Smith.

“He's had some goals ruled out that were marginal and he's playing very well."