2001–02 Aston Villa F.C. season

Aston Villa

2001–02 season
Chairman	Doug Ellis
Manager	John Gregory (until 24 January)[1] John Deehan and Stuart Gray (caretakers) Graham Taylor (from 5 February)
Stadium	Villa Park
Premier League	8th
FA Cup	Third round
League Cup	Fourth round
Intertoto Cup	Winners
UEFA Cup	First round
Top goalscorer	League: Darius Vassell and Juan Pablo Ángel (12) All: Juan Pablo Ángel (16)
Average home league attendance	35,012
← 2000–01 2002–03 →

During the 2001–02 English football season, Aston Villa competed in the Premier League (known as the FA Barclaycard 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 improve Villa's form, but two wins against Southampton and Chelsea at the end of the season where enough to see Villa finish eighth: this was hardly amazing, but it at least meant that Villa would be finishing in the top 10 for the seventh year in succession.

Final league table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Arsenal (C)	38	26	9	3	79	36	+43	87	2002–03 UEFA Champions League Group stage
2	Liverpool	38	24	8	6	67	30	+37	80
3	Manchester United	38	24	5	9	87	45	+42	77	2002–03 UEFA Champions League Third qualifying round
4	Newcastle United	38	21	8	9	74	52	+22	71
5	Leeds United	38	18	12	8	53	37	+16	66	2002–03 UEFA Cup First round ^1
6	Chelsea	38	17	13	8	66	38	+28	64
7	West Ham United	38	15	8	15	48	57	−9	53
8	Aston Villa	38	12	14	12	46	47	−1	50	2002 UEFA Intertoto Cup Third round
9	Tottenham Hotspur	38	14	8	16	49	53	−4	50
10	Blackburn Rovers	38	12	10	16	55	51	+4	46	2002–03 UEFA Cup First round ^2
11	Southampton	38	12	9	17	46	54	−8	45
12	Middlesbrough	38	12	9	17	35	47	−12	45
13	Fulham	38	10	14	14	36	44	−8	44	2002 UEFA Intertoto Cup Second round
14	Charlton Athletic	38	10	14	14	38	49	−11	44
15	Everton	38	11	10	17	45	57	−12	43
16	Bolton Wanderers	38	9	13	16	44	62	−18	40
17	Sunderland	38	10	10	18	29	51	−22	40
18	Ipswich Town (R)	38	9	9	20	41	64	−23	36	2002–03 UEFA Cup Qualifying round ^3
										Relegation to the 2002–03 Football League First Division
19	Derby County (R)	38	8	6	24	33	63	−30	30	Relegation to the 2002–03 Football League First Division
20	Leicester City (R)	38	5	13	20	30	64	−34	28

Source:
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.

Pld = Matches played; W = Matches won; D = Matches drawn; L = Matches lost; F = Goals for; A = Goals against; GD = Goal difference; Pts = Points

¹Since Arsenal qualified for the Champions League, their UEFA Cup place as FA Cup winners defaulted to Chelsea, the losing finalists.

²Blackburn Rovers qualified for the UEFA Cup as League Cup winners

³Despite relegation, Ipswich Town qualified for the 2002–03 UEFA Cup Qualifying Round as Fair Play Award winners

Results

Aston Villa's score comes first^[2]

Legend

Win

Draw

Loss

FA Premier League

Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
18 August 2001	Tottenham Hotspur	A	0–0	36,059
26 August 2001	Manchester United	H	1–1	42,632	Vassell
8 September 2001	Liverpool	A	3–1	44,102	Dublin, Hendrie, Vassell
16 September 2001	Sunderland	H	0–0	31,668
24 September 2001	Southampton	A	3–1	26,794	Boateng, Ángel, Hadji
30 September 2001	Blackburn Rovers	H	2–0	27,732	Ángel, Vassell
14 October 2001	Fulham	H	2–0	28,579	Vassell, Taylor
20 October 2001	Everton	A	2–3	33,352	Hadji, Schmeichel
24 October 2001	Charlton Athletic	H	1–0	27,701	Kachloul
27 October 2001	Bolton Wanderers	H	3–2	33,599	Ángel (2, 1 pen), Vassell
3 November 2001	Newcastle United	A	0–3	51,057
17 November 2001	Middlesbrough	H	0–0	35,424
25 November 2001	Leeds United	A	1–1	40,159	Kachloul
1 December 2001	Leicester City	H	0–2	30,711
5 December 2001	West Ham United	A	1–1	28,377	Dublin
9 December 2001	Arsenal	A	2–3	38,074	Merson, Stone
17 December 2001	Ipswich Town	H	2–1	29,320	Ángel (2)
22 December 2001	Derby County	A	1–3	28,001	Ángel
26 December 2001	Liverpool	H	1–2	42,602	Hendrie
29 December 2001	Tottenham Hotspur	H	1–1	41,134	Ángel (pen)
1 January 2002	Sunderland	A	1–1	45,324	Taylor
12 January 2002	Derby County	H	2–1	28,881	Vassell, Ángel
21 January 2002	Charlton Athletic	A	2–1	25,681	Vassell, Ángel
30 January 2002	Everton	H	0–0	32,460
2 February 2002	Fulham	A	0–0	20,041
9 February 2002	Chelsea	H	1–1	41,137	Merson
23 February 2002	Manchester United	A	0–1	67,592
2 March 2002	West Ham United	H	2–1	37,341	Ángel, Vassell
5 March 2002	Blackburn Rovers	A	0–3	21,988
17 March 2002	Arsenal	H	1–2	41,520	Dublin
23 March 2002	Ipswich Town	A	0–0	25,247
30 March 2002	Bolton Wanderers	A	2–3	24,600	Warhurst (own goal), Taylor
2 April 2002	Newcastle United	H	1–1	36,597	Crouch
6 April 2002	Middlesbrough	A	1–2	26,003	Ángel
13 April 2002	Leeds United	H	0–1	40,039
20 April 2002	Leicester City	A	2–2	18,125	Vassell, Hitzlsperger
27 April 2002	Southampton	H	2–1	35,255	Vassell (2)
11 May 2002	Chelsea	A	3–1	40,709	Crouch, Vassell, Dublin

FA Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R3	6 January 2002	Manchester United	H	2–3	38,444	Taylor, Neville (own goal)

League Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R3	10 October 2001	Reading	H	1–0	23,431	Dublin
R4	28 November 2001	Sheffield Wednesday	H	0–1	26,526

Intertoto Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R3 First Leg	14 July 2001	NK Slaven Belupo	A	1–2	3,000	Ginola
R3 Second Leg	21 July 2001	NK Slaven Belupo	H	2–0 (won 3-2 on agg)	27,580	Hendrie (2)
SF First Leg	25 July 2001	Rennes	A	1–2	15,753	Vassell
SF Second Leg	1 August 2001	Rennes	H	1–0 (won on away goals)	30,782	Dublin
F First Leg	7 August 2001	Basel	A	1–1	25,879	Merson
F Second Leg	21 August 2001	Basel	H	4–1 (won 5-2 on agg)	39,593	Vassell, Ángel (2), Ginola

UEFA Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R1 First Leg	20 September 2001	NK Varteks	H	2–3	27,132	Ángel (2)
R1 Second Leg	27 September 2001	NK Varteks	A	1–0 (lost on away goals)	12,100	Hadji

First-team squad

Squad at end of season^[3]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Peter Schmeichel 2 DF Mark Delaney 3 DF Alan Wright 4 DF Olof Mellberg 5 DF Alpay Özalan 6 MF George Boateng[4] 7 MF Ian Taylor 8 FW Juan Pablo Ángel 9 FW Dion Dublin 10 MF Paul Merson 11 DF Steve Staunton 12 GK Peter Enckelman 13 GK Boaz Myhill[5] 14 MF David Ginola 15 DF Gareth Barry 16 FW Peter Crouch 17 MF Lee Hendrie

No. Position Player 18 MF Steve Stone 19 FW Boško Balaban 20 MF Mustapha Hadji 21 MF Thomas Hitzlsperger 22 FW Darius Vassell 23 FW Stefan Moore 24 MF John McGrath 25 FW Jon Bewers 28 MF Gavin Melaugh 29 MF Stephen Cooke 30 MF Hassan Kachloul 31 DF Jlloyd Samuel[6] 39 GK Wayne Henderson 42 FW Peter Hynes 43 DF Liam Ridgewell 46 DF Ben Willetts

Reserve squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player DF Rob Edwards DF Danny Jackman DF Seán Dillon MF Ryan Amoo

No. Position Player MF Alexis Nicolas MF Jay Smith MF Keith Fahey FW Michael Husbands

Statistics

Starting 11

No. Pos Nat Name MS Notes 1 GK Peter Schmeichel 36 2 RB Mark Delaney 39 4 CB Olof Mellberg 36 11 CB Steve Staunton 35 3 LB Alan Wright 32 17 RM Lee Hendrie 35 10 CM Paul Merson 24 Alpay Özalan has 24 starts 6 CM George Boateng 47 30 LM Hassan Kachloul 25 8 CF Juan Pablo Ángel 30 22 CF Darius Vassell 33 Transfers In # Pos Player From Fee Date 30 MF Hassan Kachloul Southampton F.C. Free June 2001 20 MF Mustapha Hadji Coventry City F.C. £2,500,000 + Julian Joachim July 2001 1 GK Peter Schmeichel Sporting Clube de Portugal Free July 2001 4 DF Olof Mellberg Racing de Santander £5,000,000 July 2001 19 FW Bosko Balaban GNK Dinamo Zagreb £5,800,000 August 2001 16 FW Peter Crouch Portsmouth F.C. £5,000,000 March 2002 Out # Pos Player To Fee Date 12 FW Julian Joachim Coventry City F.C. Swap July 2001 1 GK David James West Ham United £3,500,000 July 2001 4 DF Gareth Southgate Middlesbrough F.C. £6,500,000 July 2001 13 DF Neil Cutler Stoke City F.C. Free July 2001 19 FW Richard Walker Blackpool F.C. £50,000 December 2001 14 MF David Ginola Everton F.C. Free February 2002 27 MF Michael Standing Bradford City F.C. Free March 2002 References http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/a/aston_villa/1780820.stm http://www.statto.com/football/teams/aston-villa/2001-2002/results http://www.footballsquads.co.uk/eng/2001-2002/faprem/avilla.htm Boateng was born in Nkawkaw, Ghana. Myhill was born in Modesto, California, United States, and later represented Wales internationally. Samuel was born in San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago.