During the 2001–02 English football season, Aston Villa F.C.

Aston Villa F.C.

Aston Villa Football Club is an English professional association football club based in Witton, Birmingham. The club was founded in 1874 and have played at their current home ground, Villa Park, since 1897. Aston Villa were founder members of The Football League in 1888. They were also founder...

 competed in the FA Premier League

FA Premier League

The Premier League is an English professional league for association football clubs. At the top of the English football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with The Football League. The Premier...

 (known as the FA Carling Premiership for sponsorship reasons).

Season summary

Aston Villa's early season form was good and the Midlanders even went top briefly at the end of November, but followed that with a run of eleven games with only one win, falling out of the title race. Still, it came as a shock when John Gregory announced his resignation after four years as Villa manager on 24 January. A host of names were linked with the vacancy, but in the end it was Graham Taylor, who took Villa to promotion in 1988 and second place in the league in 1990, who was appointed manager. Taylor was unable to bring anything better than an eighth place for Villa: hardly amazing, but it at least meant that Villa would be finishing in the top 10 for the seventh year in succession.

Squad

Starting 11

Only considering Premiership starts

• GK: #1,   Peter Schmeichel
  Peter Schmeichel
  Peter Bolesław Schmeichel MBE is a retired Danish professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper, and was voted the "World's Best Goalkeeper" in 1992 and 1993...
  
  , 29
• RB: #2,   Mark Delaney, 30
• CB: #4,   Olof Mellberg
  Olof Mellberg
  Erik Olof Mellberg is a Swedish international footballer currently playing for Olympiacos in the Greek Superleague. He generally plays as a central defender or right-back.-Early years:...
  
  , 32
• CB: #3,   Alan Wright
  Alan Wright
  Alan Geoffrey Wright is an English professional footballer. He is a coach in the Centre of Excellence at his first club, Blackpool, a role he assumed in June 2011....
  
  , 23
• LB: #11,   Steve Staunton
  Steve Staunton
  Stephen "Steve" Staunton is an Irish association football manager and former professional footballer, who was most recently manager of Darlington...
  
  , 30
• RM: #10,   Paul Merson
  Paul Merson
  Paul Charles Merson is a retired English football player, and former player-manager of Walsall. His playing career has included spells at Arsenal, Middlesbrough, Aston Villa, Portsmouth and finishing his playing career at Tamworth. He also played for England 21 times...
  
  , 18
• CM: #6,   George Boateng
  George Boateng
  George Boateng is a Dutch footballer who plays as a midfielder for Nottingham Forest in The Championship.-Club career:...
  
  , 36
• CM: #17,   Lee Hendrie
  Lee Hendrie
  Lee Andrew Hendrie is an English footballer who plays as a midfielder for Kidderminster Harriers in the Football Conference. The majority of his career was spent with Premier League club Aston Villa, where he spent fourteen years and became known as a somewhat controversial figure...
  
  , 25
• LM: #30,   Hassan Kachloul
  Hassan Kachloul
  Hassan Kachloul is a retired Moroccan footballer. He played for the Moroccan national team and was a squad member at the 1994 FIFA World Cup.-Career:...
  
  , 17 (#31,   Jlloyd Samuel
  Jlloyd Samuel
  Jlloyd Samuel is a Trinidadian footballer who last played for Bolton Wanderers as a defender. He is a Trinidad and Tobago international.-Aston Villa:...
  
  , also has 17 starts)
• CF: #22,   Darius Vassell
  Darius Vassell
  Darius Vassell is an English footballer who plays for Championship side Leicester City, having previously played for Aston Villa, Manchester City and Ankaragücü, as well as the England national team....
  
  , 30
• CF: #8,   Juan Pablo Angel
  Juan Pablo Ángel
  Juan Pablo Ángel Arango is a Colombian footballer. He currently plays for Chivas USA in Major League Soccer.-Atlético Nacional and River Plate:...
  
  , 26