Tag Archives: Aston Villa

European Span of Success 2025: Will Villa & Arsenal Move Up The Table?

Each year, following the end of the UEFA football season I update the UEFA European Span of Success table. What is this? It’s a list of those clubs who have won two or more (sorry Palace) major UEFA tournaments showing the span between their first UEFA success and their most recent. The list may surprise some who think that football is all about those perceived as European giants with ‘history’. This is how the table stands today (19 May 2026). Chelsea and Tottenham have moved up the table in recent seasons.

UEFA European Major Trophy Span of Success 2025

I can imagine a few Arsenal fans looking at this and saying ‘Why aren’t we on there?’ They won the Fairs Cup in 1970 and the ECWC in 1994 BUT the Fairs Cup wasn’t a UEFA tournament and had some odd entry rules over the years! For your benefit here’s a table including the Fairs Cup lower down on this page. The above table includes the four major UEFA tournaments: European Cup/Champions League; European Cup Winner’s Cup; UEFA Cup/Europa League & the Europa Conference League. It does not include non-UEFA tournaments such as the Mitropa Cup and Fairs Cup. Nor does it include the Intertoto Cup or similar.

So why are they excluded… I recognise that the Mitropa Cup had some significant clubs competing in it. However, it was predominantly an East European competition and participants were not spread over the entire continent.

With the Fairs Cup… It is true that this was later transformed into the UEFA Cup and I have included all UEFA Cup finals in my analysis. But the Fairs Cup had an odd series of entry rules at times. Cities, rather than clubs, often entered with Barcelona beating London in one final for example. It was set up as a friendly type of competition with cities that had staged trade fairs playing each other. As time wore on entry came via the League Cup or League position in England, which added significance to it. But two teams from the same city were not allowed to participate, which meant that teams finishing way down the table could be (and were) included if those above them were multiple clubs from the same city.

In 1970 Manchester City’s Mike Doyle joked that by winning the League Cup he was satisfying his aim of ‘keeping United out of Europe’ (he joked about creating car stickers with that slogan!) because it appeared at that time that United’s only chance of Europe had gone with City’s qualification for the Fairs Cup.

City went on to win the ECWC that season, meaning that Fairs Cup place was opened up to League position, but United had finished lower down the table anyway and qualified for the Watney Cup instead. Actually, the Watney Cup is one worth talking about, but I’ll save that for another day. In 1970 Fourth placed Derby County qualified for the Watney Cup, while 5th to 7th (Liverpool, Coventry and Newcastle) all got a Fairs Cup place, alongside 12th placed Arsenal (Fairs Cup winners). I’ve not investigated this fully but it does seem odd that the Watney Cup took precedence over the Fairs Cup.

Arsenal’s 1970 Fairs Cup success was their first European trophy but is not included in the span, neither are those Fairs Cup wins of Barcelona. However, as quite a few Arsenal fans seemed to get a bit upset when the table was posted the other year I’ve decided to include the Fairs Cup in the following version of the table. So this table is the winners of the main UEFA competitions I mentioned earlier plus the Fairs Cup with its odd rules:

ClubFirst Major European trophy wonSpanFirst Major European successMost Recent Major European trophy won
Real MadridEC 6819562024
TottenhamECWC6219632025
RomaFairs6119612022
West HamECWC5819652023
BarcelonaFairs5719582015
Atletico MadridECWC5619622018
ChelseaECWC5419712025
Bayern MunchenECWC5319672020
Manchester CityECWC5319702023
Manchester UnitedEC4919682017
LiverpoolUEFA4619732019
Inter MilanEC 4319642007
ValenciaFairs4219622004
Eintracht FrankfurtUEFA4219802022
AC MilanEC 4019632003
FeyernoordEC 3219702002
Real Zaragoza Fairs3119641995
Borussia DortmundECWC3119661997
Paris Saint-GermainECWC2919962025
ArsenalFairs2419701994
AjaxEC 2419711995
Porto EC 2419872011
JuventusUEFA1919771996
SevillaUEFA1720062023
Dynamo KyivECWC1119751986
PSV EindhovenUEFA1019781988
AnderlechtECWC719761983
ParmaECWC619931999
Borussia MoenchengladbachUEFA419751979
Leeds United (BOTH FAIRS CUP)Fairs319681971
BenficaEC 119611962
Nottingham ForestEC119791980

Obviously, neither table shows the number of major trophies won, but it does indicate trophy-winning longevity for those who obsess over ‘my cup’s bigger than yours’ and similar debates. Personally, I think we should all be proud of our club’s achievements and not worry about what a rival has won.

Hopefully, those Arsenal fans who were somewhat upset last year will now be happy. Note that both Roma and Barcelona have moved up the table. Both ‘Rome’ and ‘Barcelona’ won the Fairs Cup when it was city based and not club based, adding to the questionable nature of including the Fairs Cup. ‘London’ once competed in it!

Arsenal are now 20th in this combined table, behind their fellow English clubs Tottenham, West Ham, City, Chelsea, United and Liverpool. But they could move up, as could Aston Villa.

As an example of the odd qualification rules in place for the Fairs Cup at times it’s worth looking at the 1969 qualification via the English League system.

In 1969 champions Leeds entered the European Cup. The ECWC place went to FA Cup winners Manchester City and the Fairs Cup places went to: Arsenal (4th), Southampton (7th) and Newcastle (9th). Swindon had won the League Cup, beating Arsenal in the final, but the Fairs Cup organisers wouldn’t allow them to participate as they were not a top flight club! This adds to the reason the competition is usually excluded. It is certainly not a UEFA competition in any case.

Similarly, Everton (3rd), Chelsea (5th), Spurs (6th) and West Ham (8th) who all finished above Newcastle were denied because of the rule that only one club from each city be allowed. So Liverpool and Arsenal’s inclusion meant their rivals stood less chance of winning the trophy than Newcastle simply because there were multiple clubs in their cities.

That rule does make me wonder what would have happened if both Manchester clubs had qualified for the competition as City are within the city of Manchester boundaries and United are not. Would the two clubs have challenged any decision not to include one of them based on the age old argument of Manchester’s boundaries?

Maybe I’ll post more on the odd rules of football competitions and tell the story of some of those long forgotten competitions.

If you’re interested in the wider span of success for English clubs (listing those who have the longest span between their first trophy and most recent, not simply European trophies) then take a look at this I posted Sunday:

The Span of Success: Will This Change This Month?

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The Span of Success: Will This Change This Month?

Every year, once the domestic season ends I update the table showing the English clubs’ span of success – i.e. the number of years between a club’s first major success (FA Cup, League, League Cup, major European trophy) and their most recent. Here’s the table as it stands today (17 May 2026) after Manchester City’s success in the FA Cup. Obviously, there’s a chance for Arsenal (currently 11th), Aston Villa (7th but could be top if they win their European final) and Crystal Palace (just on the table following last year’s FAC success but could rise above those other ‘one major trophy’ clubs) to move up the table this month.

2026 Span of Success (as of 17/5/26, after FAC final)

Even if Arsenal do win the League or Champions League this year they’ll only rise to ninth as they didn’t win a major trophy until the 1930s.

For comparison purposes here’s the table after the 2023-24 season ended (see below). Notice the moves up the table of Spurs and Newcastle in recent seasons:

As I always say, the span of success does not show how many trophies each club has won nor does it show how frequently that club has experienced great eras of success, but it does demonstrate how wrong those people are who believe certain clubs were unsuccessful until recent years, or those who think certain clubs have always been giants. The column on first major success helps to show when some clubs first became trophy-winning significant (often after transformational investment too!).

I know clubs focus on their financials but winning a trophy has longevity, gaining the odd Premier League place provides a bit of extra cash now but no long term kudos. Winning a trophy attracts new fans and brings money-spinning opportunities too. Look at how winning the FA Cup has helped Palace this last year or so.

If I was a supporter of any of the major clubs who have not found significant success in recent decades then I would absolutely want my team to go for whichever cup competition seems the most likely to win. That’s what I always wanted from Manchester City before they were able to compete for the League again. Winning the FA Cup in 2011 helped everything that followed happen – it gave confidence and a trophy winning mentality.

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Maine Road 100 – Day 10
Maine Road 100 – Day 3
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An Interview About Joe Mercer

The 2020s: Victory over Aston Villa

On 21 April 2021 Manchester City travelled to Aston Villa for a Premier League game that ended in a 2-1 victory, putting the Blues 11 points clear of second placed Manchester United. Pep’s team were closing in on the title. The game had not started so positively with Villa’s McGinn scoring the joint quickest Premier League goal (20 seconds) of the season to date.

City fought back with goals from Phil Foden (22 minutes) and Rodri (40) but then suffered a setback when John Stones was sent off just before the break for a challenge on Ramsey. Villa also had a player, Cash, sent off 12 minutes into the second half after receiving his first yellow card only three minutes earlier. Both challenges were on Foden, who had been exceptional again. After the match Pep commented about Foden: ‘This guy is growing. His influence in our games is massive. He’s becoming a serious player. Phil right now is becoming such an important player. His influence in the final third is so important.’

The away win meant City were the first team to win ten or more games in a row on more than one occasion (previous time straggled two seasons and was 11 in May-December 2017). 

Double The Crowd: Crerand’s Bet With Allison

60 years ago this week (March 1966) Manchester City announced that their FA Cup quarter final was a 63,000 sell out. Why is this significant? Because the attendance was larger than any domestic crowd at Old Trafford that season, but why is that significant? Because at the start of the season United’s Pat Crerand bet City assistant manager Malcolm Allison that City would never get more than 30,000 for a game again! I interviewed Malcolm back in 1993 when we talked about this and he also mentioned it in he biography. The story…

Basically, Allison was sat at United’s League championship celebration and became somewhat frustrated by the glorification of United that night. While Joe Mercer took a diplomatic approach, afterall it was United’s celebration dinner, Allison decided to speak out. He told Matt Busby’s son Sandy that his dad had a twenty year start but ‘I’ll pass him in three’ and then Allison claimed he got into a discussion with Crerand about ‘little City’ compared to United. Allison claimed Crerand made a £10 bet with him that City would never again get 30,000+ in Maine Road.

A pause in the action (September 1967 Manchester derby) gives Summerbee Crerand and Dunne an opportunity to debate the action so far (Image: The Pride of Manchester, 1991)

On a Wednesday night in October (27/10/65) City attracted 34,091 for the visit of Norwich in the Second Division. Allison told me he couldn’t remember whether he ever got his £10 but he did laugh a great deal when I told him that United’s attendance the previous Saturday was 32,716 for the top flight visit of Fulham.

Malcolm Allison at the launch of Gary James’ Football With A Smile: The Authorised Biography of Joe Mercer, OBE in December 1993. Note Francis Lee appearing behind Allison.

What was even more remarkable was that the City-Everton FAC tie on 26 March 1966 was watched by 63,034 and that was higher than any domestic crowd at United that season. Allison laughed again when we discussed that briefly. As a comparison, United attracted 58,161 for their League game with Liverpool (lowest home League attendance 23,039 v Aston Villa) and they did get 60,433 for their FAC Cup quarter-final replay with Preston. Plus United managed to better all these attendances with 64,035 for their European Cup quarter-final with Benfica.

I did an earlier interview with Allison that can be listened to here:

Malcolm Allison Audio Interview Part One

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The 2010s: Manchester City v Notts County

On 20 February 2011 Manchester City’s FA Cup tie with Notts County ultimately demonstrated the gulf in quality between Manchester’s Blues and the 18th placed team in League One (3rd tier). County, managed by former United player Paul Ince, had opened brightly and almost took the lead after only 60 seconds, but City went on to dominate this fourth round replay.

Patrick Vieira opened the scoring for City in the 37th minute when he headed home after David Silva whipped a cross in his direction from a Kolarov corner. Vieira added a second 13 minutes after half time. Roberto Mancini’s side seemed comfortable by this time, but County began to put the Blues under pressure, forcing goalkeeper Joe Hart to make a couple of significant saves.

Ince’s side peaked by about the 70th minute and City increased their lead in the 84th as Carlos Tevez scored his 50th goal in only 73 appearances for the Blues – a return that caused the Guardian’s Daniel Taylor to suggest the Argentinian had: ‘legitimate credentials to be recognised as the outstanding striker in [City’s] history.’

A Edin Dzeko header made it 4-0 in the 89th minute and then Micah Richards hooked a superb shot into the top corner from about 12 yards out to make it 5-0 in added time.

City were through to face Aston Villa in the fifth round, and they already knew that, should they beat Villa, the quarter-final would be against either Everton or Reading.

While the result was extremely positive there had been one potentially concerning moment picked up by the nation’s media. Mario Balotelli clashed heads with County defender Pearce and was replaced almost immediately by Carlos Tevez (60th minute). As Balotelli left the field, he seemed somewhat unhappy and threw his snood to the ground as he walked down the tunnel. The player was taken to hospital after the game as he felt dizzy and nauseous, but much was made of his disappointment at being substituted. When asked about it after the game Mancini said: ‘He was unhappy, sure. I’d expect him to be. But that was our plan [to substitute him] and we had told him. We have games coming up every three or four days and we want him 100%.’

At a time when some were suggesting City should concentrate on finishing in a League place that would guarantee Champions League football rather than a domestic cup, Mancini was asked whether the Cup mattered to him. He replied: ‘The FA Cup is an important competition, and we want to win it. Reaching the final is our aim but we cannot look too far ahead. We have a Europa tie on Thursday and then we must play in the League on Sunday before the cup match against Villa… It is a lot to ask to win every week, but we must rest well and then work hard.’

Match Stats

20 February 2011

Manchester City 5 (Vieira 2, Tevez, Dzeko & Richards) Notts County 0

Attendance 27,276

On This Day: Christmas at Manchester City

Had your Christmas dinner yet? If not then spare a thought for those days when professional football in England would take place on Christmas Day. In the modern era the thought of playing League football on Christmas Day is totally unacceptable, but in years gone by games were played on consecutive days over Christmas, including Christmas Day, and these were often the best attended matches of the winter.  

The last Christmas Day game featuring Manchester City took place in 1957 when the Blues were defeated 2-1 at Burnley.  The City team for that landmark game was:  Trautmann, Leivers, Little, Barnes, Ewing, Warhurst, Barlow, Kirkman, Johnstone, Hayes, and Fagan.  Fionan Fagan was the last City player to score on Christmas Day

The following day City defeated Burnley 4-1 at Maine Road in front of a crowd of 47,285.  The only change to the line up was Ron Phoenix, who replaced Bobby Johnstone. 

The First Noel

The first League game ever played by City on Christmas Day was at Christmas 1896 against Newton Heath (present day Manchester United).  The game was played at Bank Street, Clayton (roughly across the road from the Etihad, the site of the BMX centre behind the present Velodrome) and was attended by 18,000 – a figure described by the Athletic News as being huge for Newton Heath:  “The crowd was an enormous one and I never saw so many lads at a football match.  They were really the cause of the encroaching in the first half, for they were continually creeping under the rails, and as a natural consequence their elders were bound to follow if they were to get a glimpse of the game.”  

Fans streamed on to the pitch on several occasions and the game was almost abandoned at half time:  “Mr. J. Parlby, one of the League Management Committee, told the crowd point blank that if they did not keep beyond the touchline, the game could not proceed, and the Newton Heath Club would have to suffer the consequences.”

Parlby, was actually a City director, and his words may have been influenced by the fact Newton Heath were the better side that day!  The game ended 2-1 to the Heathens.

The two sides met on two further occasions on Christmas Day, the last (1902) ended 1-1 at Clayton before 40,000 with Billy Meredith scoring for the Blues.

Highest Christmas Crowd

City tended to be away from home on Christmas Day, but the best Maine Road crowd on the 25th was 56,750 in 1930 when City faced Arsenal.  The following day a mere 17,624 attended the return game at Highbury.

The previous year a crowd reported as 70,000 watched Aston Villa beat City 2-1 on Boxing Day at Maine Road.  This is the highest Christmas crowd at a City League game.

Christmas Thriller

Perhaps the most entertaining – if disappointing – game ever played by the Blues on Christmas Day was the 6-5 defeat by Bury at Gigg Lane in 1925.  

Debuts

The following players made their Manchester City League debuts on Christmas Day:

1946 – Peter Robinson (V. Plymouth Argyle)

1933 – Frank Swift (V. Derby County)

1902 – Johnny Mahon (V. Manchester United)

1909 – George Wynn (V. Bradford Park Avenue)

Bunny Shaw: Record Scorer

Congratulations to Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw on becoming the first Manchester City Women player to score 100 goals since the relaunch of the club. It’s a wonderful feat and she deserves immense praise. Here’s City’s report of today’s (14 December 2025) 6-1 victory over Aston Villa which saw Shaw score 4 goals:

https://www.mancity.com/news/womens/man-city-aston-villa-wsl-match-report-december-2025-63901308

Top Two Divisions Attendances and Table From 40 Years Ago!

Last week I posted the top flight attendances for this last week forty years ago and this led to a number of comments/questions and so to answer some of those I’ve now posted the top two divisions attendances together with the two League tables AND the end of season average attendances. People asked for clarity on how the figures compared to the second tier and whether League position played its part in affecting crowds. As a reminder here’s last week’s attendances…

And here’s this week’s (published 24 November 1985) and the League table too.

Obviously, these are only snapshots from that season but to add a bit more context here are the end of season averages here are the top 46 best supported clubs in order that season (hopefully it might make those who sing songs like ‘Where Were You?’ think about the crowds at their own clubs first):

A few notable League positions for those who do sing ‘Where Were You?’… The top eight clubs in the League were: Liverpool (champions), Everton, West Ham, Man Utd, Sheff Wed, Chelsea, Arsenal and Forest. Manchester City (who were 4th best supported club) were 15th (only 4 points above relegation zone), Spurs were tenth, Newcastle 11th and Aston Villa 16th.

In the Second Division best supported club Sunderland were 18th (avoiding relegation by 4 points); the top four were Norwich, Charlton, Wimbledon and Portsmouth.

If you’d like to know more about Manchester City at this time, here’s a 2,500 word subscriber feature on the 1985-86 season. Enjoy!

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Attendances 40 Years Ago!

These two results tables for top flight football in November 1985 make interesting reading. I’ve included the details published today (17 November, for games played the previous day) in 1985 and also the week after’s details too. This gives an idea of what the top clubs were attracting back then. Notice West Ham’s game attracted more at home than Arsenal’s and that Liverpool were over 26,000 less than Manchester United. Arsenal’s crowd was 6,000 less than struggling Manchester City and Tottenham attracted more than Arsenal too. Reigning League champions Everton were some way ahead of the London clubs and only about 600 behind Liverpool. Obviously, these are only snapshots from two weekends but hopefully it might make those who sing songs like ‘Where Were You?’ think about the crowds at their own clubs first.

the Marwood scoring for Sheffield Wednesday was of course Brian Marwood who went on to play a key part in Manchester City’s modern return to glory. If you’d like to know more about Manchester City at this time, here’s a 2,500 word subscriber feature on the 1985-86 season. Enjoy!

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Lessons From History: MCFC 2020 & 2025

It’s part of the football circus these days that occasional defeats are greeted as devastating occurences. Social media goes into meltdown; shock jock style radio stations begin to predict the end of eras and even the BBC seems to take a ‘your all doomed’ approach if you lose a game. After City’s narrow defeat at Villa last week the BBC’s website stated: ‘In the context of the title race, there are concerning signs for City’ and elsewhere on the BBC there were fans quoted complaining about the weaknesses in the team. So, to take a more reasoned view I decided to take a look at the 2020-21 season when similar reporting occurred of City’s games. Back then pundits like the former Arsenal player Martin Keown were highly critical of City. After five games of the 2020-21 season City were 12th and Keown said: ‘there’s certainly some rebuilding to be done. We will see how good Pep really is now; he’s got to rebuild the team.’

Those Keown comments are similar to some being aired at the moment about City being rebuilt etc. Pep proved back then (I wonder if he chatted to Keown about his comments in 2020?) how good he was.

Back in 2020-21 City lost to Tottenham in their eighth League game. That put Spurs top and some began predicting the London club may manage to actually win the league. Similarly, some predicted that City were too unpredictable to lift the title. The statistic often quoted that weekend was that City’s points total of 12 from eight games was the club’s lowest at that stage since 2008-09. Very similar style comments to this season when the BBC quoted (after the Villa defeat): ‘City have lost three of their opening nine games in the Premier League this season (W5 D1), with the Cityzens last suffering more defeats at this stage of a league campaign in 2008-09 (four).‘

As a direct comparison it’s worth noting that City are two points behind where they were five years ago, and in both seasons faced criticism. Remarkably City ended up winning the Premier League in 2020-21 by 12 points and the early season leaders Spurs finished seventh. Some pundits and journalists would later rewrite history and go on to talk as if the 2020-21 title race had been a foregone conclusion with City ‘dominating football’ like no other team had ever done before (it was ‘bad’ for football, blah, blah blah). They talked negatively about other teams not standing a chance etc. but that is so wrong.

So, what am I going on about. Well, if 2020-21 shows us anything it is that no league title is decided so early in the season. Nor does a defeat mean all is lost. City are currently two points behind where they were in that remarkable 2020-21 season, when they won the title by 12 points. Imagine if that happened again? I know it’s doubtful and Arsenal are certainly a better team than they were back then and Spurs were too. But football’s unpredictable and anything is possible.

For those wondering here are 2020-21’s results at this stage followed by a table with this season’s:

DateOpponentVenueResultPoints
21/09/2020Wolverhampton WanderersA3-13
27/09/2020Leicester CityH2-50
03/10/2020Leeds UnitedA1-11
17/10/2020ArsenalH1-03
24/10/2020West Ham UnitedA1-11
31/10/2020Sheffield UnitedA1-03
08/11/2020LiverpoolH1-11
21/11/2020Tottenham HotspurA0-23
28/11/2020BurnleyH5-03
Total18

Here’s this season’s results:

DateOpponentVenueResultPoints
16/08/2025WolvesA4-03
23/08/2025SpursH0-20
31/08/2025BrightonA1-20
14/09/2025UtdH3-03
21/09/2025ArsenalA1-11
27/09/2025BurnleyH5-13
05/10/2025BrentfordA1-03
18/10/2025EvertonH2-03
26/10/2025Aston VillaA0-10
Total16