Intro:

Aston Villa boss Paul Lambert calls for a Premier League winter break ahead of their New Year's Day match against Crystal Palace.

Script:

SOUNDBITE: (English) Paul Lambert, Aston Villa boss:(on the lack of a winter break in English football)

"Even when I played in Germany, we stopped in December and the next game was in February, so the winter break was beneficial for everybody. And the time was great, you went away and got better and then come back and do a little pre-season, or whatever you want to call it, and get ready for the second half (of the season). But in this country we want to keep playing and playing and playing, and it's not good for the players, doing that. Injuries can happen really quickly, and the way the game's going now, a really quick game, fast, it's tough, it's really tough for players."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Paul Lambert, Aston Villa boss:(on playing Crystal Palace, who are without a manager after Neil Warnock's dismissal)

"No, you don't (know what to expect), the only good thing is we played them a few weeks ago and it's the same group of lads and whether Keith (Millen, Crystal Palace caretaker manager) gets it or somebody else comes in and takes it remains to be seen, but they're the same group of lads that have to play against us what played against us a few weeks ago. So, we know it'll be a hard game but we're playing well, that's... we're passing the ball really well at the minute and all we need to do is finish that good play off. Let's see what happens."