ZOLA PRAISES O'NEILL

West Ham Utd manager Gianfranco Zola has nothing but respect for Aston Villa's Martin O'Neill.

Zola reveals that even though Villa have not won in their last seven games, its the long-term work that has impressed the Italian.

The Hammer's take on O'Neill's Villa side today, both are chasing places in Europe and it is a must win game for both, Zola talks to the clubs official website about how impressed he is with the work that Martin O'Neill has done at the Midlands club and his own long-term plans.

"What they have done is quite exceptional. They were in the top four in the league and pushing for a top-two position actually. So, they played an unbelievable season when you consider they were fighting against monsters because Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea were there. They each have 25 or 26 champions and what Villa were doing was quite incredible. It's difficult to keep up the pace with them. I still consider Aston Villa's season to be an incredible season."

"It would be something fantastic for the club. It's going to be very difficult to become a monster like Manchester United because we don't have the possibilities but we want to build something differently. Maybe it's going to be a longer-term project but one day we want to be competing with those teams."

"I said straight away that Arsenal was one of the models that this club was looking up to. That's what we want to do. I think it's working ok for the moment and we're looking forward to improving. Certainly Arsenal is a team that I admire very much so obviously to try to do what they do is something we would like to do."