Slideshow

O'Neill's Legacy

Martin O'Neill arrived at Aston Villa in August 2006 as part of former Chairman, Doug Ellis's final act in charge before the sale of the club to American millionaire, Randy Lerner.

His most successful buys into the club arguably came on the same day in January 2008, where Watford's Ashley Young was purchased for £9.75m and John Carew arrived in a swap deal for Milan Baros.

O'Neill's biggest win came in April 2008 when arch rivals Birmingham City succumbed to a 5-1 defeat at Villa Park, Carew scoring two.

This was one of many successful wins over the 2007-08 season that saw Villa finish sixth in the Premiership, earning an Intertoto qualification place as a result.

Gareth Barry's form as Villa captain saw his rise to the England ranks where he became a regular under Steve McClaren and now, Fabio Capello.

O'Neill spent most of this summer convincing his star midfielder to stay at the club, setting an £18m asking price to Liverpool, who Barry claimed he was "desperate" to join.

Barry ended up staying with the Villains, for now anyway, and played a crucial role in the team's opening UEFA cup group game against Dutch giants Ajax.

Barry scored the winner in front of an electric Villa Park to defeat Ajax 2-1 and set the tone for what will hopefully be a successful UEFA cup campaign.


Friday 28 November 2008

Fulham Preview (H)

Aston Villa can go third in the Premiership this weekend if results go their way, establishing a geniune claim for a top four finish this season.

Should Manchester United and Arsenal suffer weekend defeats to Manchester City and Chelsea respectively, a win at home against Fulham, winless away in the league this season, could propel the Villians to their highest league position of the season.

Luke Young, John Carew and Carlos Cuellar will face fitness tests in their bids to face the Cottagers, while Brad Friedel looks to break David James' record of consecutive Premier League appearances with his 167th straight start.
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Sunday 23 November 2008

Not a bad week in the end.















After the two defeats to Newcastle and Middlesborough, I, for one was sceptical going to into games against Arsenal and Manchester United. Having lost 14 consecutive games in all competitions to United and having not beaten Arsenal away since 1997, I was worried we may be in danger of losing ground on the top four and finding ourselves in a disappointing mid-table position.

How ashamed do I feel now?

The best way Martin O'Neill and the boys could have restored our faith in believing a top four finish is actually on the cards this year is by battering Arsenal at the Emirates and holding the Premiership champions to a draw. We could even have won yesterday had the referee not been "overwhelmed", said O'Neill, at the idea of giving Villa a penalty for a blatant foul by Nemanja Vidic on Gabby Agbonlahor. Four points from six though? I'll take that.
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Wednesday 12 November 2008

Tricky Times at Villa

Arsenal, Manchester United, John Carew injured and four points separating the bottom 10 teams in the league reads awkwardly for any Villa fan right now.

Arsenal at the Emirates has never really filled me with fear. We've played there twice now and come away with two points when it could easily been six barring two late Arsenal equalisers.

Playing Manchester United is basically forfeiting six points a season, we just can't beat them. I can't see next weekend being any different.

The fact we are only five points off tength place is a little worrying. Four points separates the bottom half of the table and should we fail to obtain any points against two of the top four giants we could see ourselves in a less than favourable position in the league.

John Carew being injured doesn't help, and his absence was more than noticeable in the atrocious Middlesbrough performance.

With two league defeats in a row staring us in the face we can only hope that Martin gets a performance out of the boys on Saturday against the hit and miss Arsenal, giving us some belief to really have a go at United and keep us above any unwanted danger below us in the Premiership.
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