However Gareth Barry broke ranks and said 'There was not alot of shouting - it was more a question of the manager still believing in us. He just said if you go out and play as you can and get an early goal, then we can overrun them, which is exactly what happened." It sure did by seven goals if my maths are correct!!

And Villa think they can score against the meanest defence in the Premiership (so far). We know one thing that the ground will be a sell-out, except for the away end....... snigger.

But what do you know about Aston Villa then ?

Lets start off with Villa's famous fans for a change. There is violinist Nigel Kennedy, Prince of Darkness Ozzy Osbourne, even Royalty with Prince William,

'Forrest Gump' himself Tom Hanks, comedian Mark Williams, top band Ocean Colour Scene, Tory Iain Duncan Smith and Benjamin Zephaniah.

Aston Villa's football ground is Villa Park. Villa Park stands proud on the outskirts of the City of Birmingham and its clearly visible as you approach Birmingham on the M6 (unless you are on the new M6 toll road and then it doesn't and it isn't). As you pass Villa Park, you then get to see the high rise University buildings and campus of Aston University and there you have it, a quick guided tour of Aston.

Aston Villa was formed in March 1874 by members of the Villa Cross Wesleyan Chapel in Aston. Members of the Aston Villa cricket team were looking for a way to keep fit duirng the winter and decided to adopt the new sport (of its time) football. Four members of the founding fathers of Aston Villa football club were Jack Hughes, Frederick Matthews, Walter Price and William Scattergood.

Villa's first match was against Aston Brook St Mary's Rugby team. The game was a game of two halves. One half was played under Rugby rules and the other half was played under Football rules and lol and behold Aston Villa won 1-0. The goalscorer was one of the founding members himself, Jack Hughes.

Aston Villa is steeped in tradition and history. Led by the charismatic and dogmatic Doug Ellis (footage of him recently shown, when Milan Baros signed) showed Ellis as a seriously frail old man but the 'old bugger' stands no nonsense even today.

Here is a complete list of the honours won by Aston Villa Football Club:

 European Cup 1982  

 European Super Cup 1982

 Intertoto Cup 2001 

 FA Cup 1887, 1895, 1897, 1905, 1913, 1920,1957 

 League Cup 1961, 1975, 1977, 1994, 1996

 First Division Champions 1893-1894, 1895-1896, 1896-1897, 1898-1899, 1899-1900, 1909-1910, 1980-1981

 Second Division Champions 1937-1938, 1959-1960

 Third Division Champions 1971-1972 

 FA Youth Cup 1972, 1980, 2002

David O'Leary is currently Villa's manager. Leeds, Arsenal and Republic of Ireland's fans will remember O'Leary's contribution to these teams as a no-nonsense outstanding Centre-Half of his time.

Other managers include and even Villa fans would have to admit that they have had perhaps one manager too many. Remember Graham Taylor 15 months, John Gregory just under 4 years, Brian Little 3 1/2 years, Ron Atkinson just over 3 1/2 years, Jozef Venglos less than a year and the list goes on and on. It seems now though O'Leary has bought about some stability to the club and Villa fans are probably looking for a lot more success this season. The close-signing of Milan Baros from Liverpool, outlined Villa's intentions.

In 2000, Chelsea defeated Aston Villa in the FA Cup final 1-0. Head to head at The Bridge since then has seen Chelsea win 1-0 in 2001, Villa win 3-1 in 2001/2002, 2002/2003 Chelsea win 2-0, 2003/2004 Chelsea win 1-0 and again last season Chelsea prevailing by the same score 1-0.

Overall League head-to head's at Stamford Bridge have seen Chelsea win 32 times, Villa win 21 times with 11 games drawn. Chelsea scoring 93 goals to Villa's 75.

The highest aggregate goal-fest at Stamford Bridge between the two teams happened in 1931/32 season when Villa won 6-3.

40 YEARS A BLUE!