Martin O’Neill is reportedly set to spend whatever transfer fee he manages to wrangle out of Liverpool for want-away Captain Gareth Barry on 3 stars this summer. His three reported targets are Tottenham’s Pascal Chimbonda who may be available for a knock-down price of £2M, Chelsea’s forgotten midfield man Steve Sidwell and Blackburn’s talented right-sided star David Bentley.

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Sir Alex Ferguson won the League Manager’s Association Manager of the Year award this season which meant various other contenders were overlooked. Fair enough, Fergie’s team won the title but they were already reigning champions and he spent millions on improving an already excellent squad so perhaps manager’s who drastically improved their sides were more deserving.

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Aston Villa’s crushing 5-1 demolition of their Second City rivals Birmingham last weekend has left them within three points of 5th position. This result caps a memorable scoring spree that has seen Villa rack up an incredible 15 goals in just three games. Martin O’Neill’s Villans side are now the 2nd highest scorers in the Premier League behind current leaders and reigning Champions United. This has got me thinking, surely it’s about time Martin O’Neill was given an enormous amount of credit for both revitalising a sleeping giant and subsequently transforming them into an exciting, attacking unit that can only be described as the ‘Villa Thrillers’?

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Villa have a good recent record against Blackburn including a 4-0 win at Ewood Park back in November. The Villans have won the last 3 encounters with Rovers and have scored 8 goals in the process. Mark Hughes’ side have won just one of the last 7 meetings (lost 5) and have not won at Villa Park for 4 years. Villa have won the last 3 encounters at home without conceding a goal. In fact, they have only conceded in 1 of the last 6 against Rovers at home (5 wins). With those stats in mind, the home side should be strong favourites.

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Rafa Benitez is having a hard time of it at the moment, his Liverpool side lie 12 points behind leaders Manchester United having spent nearly £50million on new recruits and the club’s owners have recently admitted to approaching Jurgen Klinsmann about replacing Rafa at the Liverpool helm. So you’d expect a home match with Martin O’Neill’s rejuvenated Villa side to have him worried. Well you’d be wrong, if past form is anything to go by then this could be the perfect game for Rafa’s Reds.

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Villa got knocked out of the FA Cup at the hands of Manchester United last weekend leaving the Villans trophy-less for yet another season but you won’t hear a bad word said against manager Martin O’Neill on the stands at Villa Park. The mercurial Northern Irishman has led Villa to the dizzy heights of 7th in the Premier League and Uefa Cup football is certainly a realistic target. But why settle for second best you Villans, you are just a mere 3 points from a Champions League spot!

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Villa fans got possibly the worst draw they could have imagined when they were paired with Manchester United in the FA Cup 3rd round. The poor old Villans have an appalling recent record against the Red Devils having lost the last 12 meetings between the sides. In fact, Villa have not beaten United in 9 years, that’s 20 matches without success against Sir Alex Ferguson’s team. If that’s not bad enough they’ve also lost the last 5 FA Cup encounters with United, this includes three 3rd round exits in the last 6 years alone. The last time Villa managed to beat a United side in the greatest domestic cup competition in the world over half a century ago, 51 years to be precise in the 1957 cup final. So I wouldn’t start pencilling in a trip to Wembley just yet Villa fans.

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Martin O’Neill’s Villa side have not managed a win in the whole of December so the last place most Premier League sides would want to go aiming for 3 points is fortress Stamford Bridge. After all Chelsea have not been beaten there in the League for 71 games, in fact home season ticket holders have not seen a defeat at the Bridge since February 2004. To add some festive flavour, if the Blues remain unbeaten on Boxing Day, they will have spent 4 Christmases unbeaten at the Bridge, not bad eh!

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City have struggled away from home this season but this could be a turning point if history has any bearing on this match. The Citizens have a superb record against Villa with only one defeat against them in the last 5 years. They also have an excellent record at Villa Park having won on each of their last 3 visits. City have lost just once there in the last 9 visits. Finally there could be some away day joy for City fans!

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