The general consensus is that Manchester City are the biggest challengers to break into the top four – but Aston Villa will have a point to prove when the two clubs face each other on Monday.

For it was Martin O’Neill’s side that were threatening to become the first team since Everton in 2005 to break the stranglehold of the Premier League’s dominant quartet, only for a terminal collapse in the final third of last season.

They had Arsenal worried for a long time and it prompted Arsene Wenger, notoriously reluctant to spend big, to shell out £15m on Andrei Arshavin in the January transfer window to help them consolidate fourth spot.

 

But with the players that big-spending City have attracted, including Villa’s own captain Gareth Barry, the limelight is very much focused on the Eastlands club and their prospects of qualifying for the Champions League.

In some ways the shift in attention might actually work in Villa’s favour and lower expectations. Even O’Neill was talking up City’s chances of winning the title back in August, claiming they had the quality to ‘withstand anything’.

But the Villa boss knows just as well as Mark Hughes that City won’t win the title – although he will see them as a threat to his own aspirations of finishing fourth and his comment was nothing more than a ploy to heighten the publicity surrounding the so-called ‘Galacticos’.

The game will also provide the perfect opportunity for Barry’s former teammates to show him what he’s missing and that City are no more equipped than Villa to make the step up.

However, it’s O’Neill’s attempts at replacing Barry and influential defender Martin Laursen that could scupper their hopes.

If your average fan was told their club would spend £40m in the summer, then chances are he or she would be delighted with the investment.

But a substantial amount of that sum went on Stewart Downing, who is injured until November at the earliest, Stephen Warnock and Danny Collins. It didn’t inspire much optimism.

They are solid if unspectacular additions but if anyone can turn good players into players who are good enough to help Villa make that final stride, it’s O’Neill.

Villa squandered a one-goal lead at Ewood Park in their previous outing and eventually lost to a late penalty, but this is an ideal game to reaffirm their credentials and send a message that they are very much in the frame alongside City to gain top-four membership.