The 2008–09 Premier League season was Aston Villa's 134th season in English football. It was the club's 98th season in the top-flight and their 21st consecutive

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

in the top flight. They were managed by

Martin O'Neill Martin Hugh Michael O'Neill, (born 1 March 1952) is a Northern Irish professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Association football, player who played as a midfielder. After a brief early career in the Irish Leag ...

– in his third season since replacing

David O'Leary David Anthony O'Leary (born 2 May 1958) is a football manager and former player. The majority of his 20-year playing career was spent as a central defender at Arsenal, where his tally of 722 appearances stands as a club record. He played 68 time ...

. The 2008–09 season was the first spell in European competition for O'Neill, and the first for Villa, in 6 seasons. The club's first summer signing was the permanent capture of on-loan West Brom centre-back,

Curtis Davies Curtis Eugene Davies (born 15 March 1985) is a former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. Born in England, he represented the Sierra Leone national team. Davies began his career at Luton Town, for whom he made his professiona ...

, in July, while their first sale was made in May, as

Luke Moore Luke Isaac Moore (born 13 February 1986) is an English former professional association football, footballer who played as a striker (association football), striker. He represented England at England national under-21 football team, England U21 ...

completed a move to West Brom in an initial £3 million deal, after he had spent the second half of the 2007–08 season there on loan. The fixtures for the 2008–09 season were announced on Monday 16 June 2008, with Aston Villa beginning at home against

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

and finishing the season at home to

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...

. Due to

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

's relegation at the end of the 2007–08 season, there was no Second City derby, however they faced local rivals West Brom on 20 September 2008 at

The Hawthorns The Hawthorns is an All-seater stadium, all-seater association football, football stadium in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England, with a capacity of 26,688. It has been the home of EFL Championship, Championship club West Bromwich Albion F.C. ...

and on 10 January 2009 at home. In December 2008, Everton player and boyhood Villa fan,

Joleon Lescott Joleon Patrick Lescott (born 16 August 1982) is an English former professional association football, footballer, coach and sports pundit. He currently works as an interim coach with the England national football team, England senior team and pla ...

put two past Villa and still lost the match following

Ashley Young Ashley Simon Young (born 9 July 1985) is an English professional footballer who plays as a winger, midfielder, or full-back. He is currently a free agent. Young started his career as a winger at Watford and made his first senior appearance i ...

's "brilliant" equalizer. After 25 games, having qualified for the UEFA Cup as joint winners of the Intertoto Cup, the club were third in the table on 51 points, 2 points above Chelsea on level games and 7 points above Arsenal in 5th place and on course for a place in the Champions League for the first time since 1983. O'Neill decided to prioritise Champions League qualification above all else, fielding a virtual reserve side for a UEFA Cup game against CSKA Moscow which was subsequently lost. Following this, Villa failed to win any of the next 8 league games and improving form for Arsenal & Chelsea meant that Villa failed to reach the top 4.

Kit

Transfers

Transferred in

Loaned in

Transferred out

Loaned out

Overall transfer activity

Expenditure

£45,400,000

Income

£6,600,000

Balance

£38,800,000

Players

First-team squad

:''Squad at end of season''

Left club during season

Reserve squad

:''The following players made most of their appearances for the reserve team this season, and did not appear for the first team.''

Youth squad

:''The following players made most of their appearances for the youth team this season, but may have also appeared for the reserves.''

Other players

:''The following players did not appear for any squad this season.''

Trialists

Competitions

Overall

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

: Sixth * League Cup: Third round (knocked out by Q.P.R.) *

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

: Fifth round (knocked out by Everton) *

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from , "between" and , " betting pool"),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. originally called the International Football Cup, was a summer football competition between European clubs. The competition was dis ...

: Joint-winner, qualified for

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

: Round of 32 (knocked out by

CSKA Moscow CSKA Moscow () is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. It was created in 1911 in the Russian Empire on base of OLLS (Skiing Society, founded 1901). Later, during the Soviet Union, Soviet era, it was the central part of the Armed Forces (sports ...

)

Premier League

Final league table

Results summary

Matches

Pre-season friendlies

First-Team

FA Cup

Football League Cup

UEFA Cup

Statistics

Player statistics

First-Team

*Last Update: End of season *Data includes all competitive competitions

Reserves/Academy

*Last Update: 25 March 2009 *Data includes all competitions * Zoltán Stieber signed for

TuS Koblenz TuS Koblenz is a Football in Germany, German association football club, located in Koblenz, Rhineland-Palatinate. Fussball Club Deutschland Neuendorf, which was formed in 1911, is viewed as the foundation of the modern club. History Nazi era ( ...

on 29 January 2009. Conor Devlin and Aldi Haxhia were signed on emergency short-term loan deals. Both returned to

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

and Chelsea respectively.

Squad information

Notes

References

External links

Aston Villa official website
*avfchistory.co.u
2008–09 season
{{DEFAULTSORT:2008-09 Aston Villa F.C. Season Aston Villa F.C. seasons

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club (commonly referred to as simply Villa) is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club, founded in 1874, compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The team have p ...