FIFA players will know all about this team…
Aston Villa’s 2008 Premier League campaign kicked off with a bang as Martin O’Neill’s boys gave Mark Hughes’ City a bit of a spanking at Villa Park.
Things have, er, changed quite drastically since then.
Villa would go on to finish 6th that season, putting in a serious challenge for a top-four spot until a total capitulation in February and March meant they ended up 10 points off Arsenal in fourth.
O’Neill also famously decided to sign Emile Heskey from Wigan Athletic instead of a certain Radamel Falcao from River Plate towards the end of the January transfer window, but those two things are completely unrelated. I promise.
10 years on, they begin their third consecutive season in the Championship away at Hull City at tonight. They suffered play-off final heartache after losing to Fulham 1-0 at Wembley in May and Steve Bruce will be hoping he can take Midlands side back to the Premier League at the second time of asking, having replaced Roberto Di Matteo midway through 2016/17 with the club in the bottom half.
Just so you realise how long a decade is, especially in football, this is the team Man City were trotting out in 2008:
Joe Hart, Micah Richards, Vedran Corluka, Tal Ben-Haim, Javier Garrido, Kelvin Etuhu, Gelson Fernandes, Michael Johnson, Martin Petrov, Elano, Ched Evans.
Yeah. Just imagine all the work Pep Guardiola would have to do with that absolute casserole of nonsense for a football team.
Anyway, Villa beat them 4-2 with a hattrick from one player. But can you name the full starting XI?
This is the part where we usually wish you luck. I’m not going to do that. I don’t believe in luck, I believe in cold, hard, football knowledge.
You have three minutes:
