Aston Villa v Tottenham Hotspur

Twelve clubs, one vision; Aston Villa were there at the very birth of professional football in 1888.

On 21 November 1874, members of the Villa Cross Wesleyan Chapel in Handsworth, Birmingham, formed Aston Villa Football Club. Within a decade they were among the strongest sides in the Midlands, reaching the FA Cup final in 1887. The club was a founding member of the Football League in 1888, one of twelve clubs that shaped the professional game.

Schoolboys named their club after a medieval knight. The cheek of it.

Tottenham Hotspur Football Club was founded on 5 September 1882 by a group of schoolboys from Hotspur Cricket Club and the local grammar school. Named after Sir Henry Percy, the medieval knight known as Harry Hotspur, the club turned professional in 1895 and joined the Football League's Second Division in 1908 after years in the Southern League.

Only the second club in history to win the Double, Villa marked the achievement by planting roots at a ground they have never left.

The 1896-97 season was Aston Villa's finest hour of the Victorian era. They won both the First Division title and the FA Cup, becoming only the second club to achieve the Double. That same year, the club moved to the Aston Lower Grounds, the site that would become Villa Park. It has been their home ever since, making it one of the longest continuously occupied grounds in English football.

The last non-League side to lift the FA Cup; Spurs have owned that distinction for over a century.

In 1901, Tottenham Hotspur achieved something no club has managed since: winning the FA Cup as a non-League side. Still playing in the Southern League, Spurs beat Sheffield United 3-1 in a replay at Burnden Park after a 2-2 draw at Crystal Palace. It announced Tottenham as a serious force and accelerated their path into the Football League. The two clubs' trajectories were now firmly intertwined at the top of the English game.

Nicholson's 1960-61 side became the first 20th-century club to claim the Double, a feat Villa had last managed in 1897.

Bill Nicholson's Spurs side of 1960-61 became the first team in the 20th century to win the League and FA Cup Double, matching the feat Villa had achieved in 1897. That season, Spurs beat Villa 6-2 at White Hart Lane in the league. The Double-winning side, featuring Danny Blanchflower, Dave Mackay, and Jimmy Greaves (who joined the following season), is still regarded as one of the finest English club teams ever assembled.

Seventy-one years between First Division titles; Villa made the wait look worth every minute.

The 1980-81 season saw both clubs at their peak. Aston Villa, under Ron Saunders, won the First Division championship for the first time since 1910, built on a miserly defence and the goals of Peter Withe and Gary Shaw. Tottenham, meanwhile, won the FA Cup with Ricky Villa's extraordinary solo goal in the replay against Manchester City. It was a season that underlined the stature of both clubs.

From Second Division obscurity to European champions in seven years; Peter Withe's solitary goal wrote the most improbable chapter in English football.

On 26 May 1982, Aston Villa beat Bayern Munich 1-0 in Rotterdam to win the European Cup. Peter Withe scored the only goal. It remains one of the most remarkable achievements in English football: a club that had been in the Second Division just seven years earlier standing as champions of Europe. Villa joined an elite group that, at the time, included only Liverpool and Nottingham Forest among English clubs.

Villa's runners-up finish in the Premier League's first season, 1992-93, remained their finest league campaign since lifting the title in 1981.

When the Premier League launched in August 1992, both Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur were among the 22 founding members. Villa finished runners-up in that inaugural season under Ron Atkinson, their best league finish since the title win in 1981. The fixture became a Premier League staple, with both clubs featuring in the top flight for the vast majority of the competition's existence.

Relegated in 2016, promoted in 2019, and plotting a 50,000-seat future; few turnarounds have moved quite so fast.

Egyptian billionaire Nassef Sawiris and American businessman Wes Edens completed their takeover of Aston Villa in 2018, injecting serious investment into a club that had been relegated to the Championship in 2016. Promotion was secured via the play-offs in 2019, and the new owners' ambition quickly became clear. Villa Park itself is set for a major redevelopment, with plans to increase capacity beyond 50,000.

From Championship football to Champions League nights in five short years; Emery's Villa have rewritten the script entirely.

Under Unai Emery, Aston Villa finished fourth in the 2023-24 Premier League season, qualifying for the Champions League for the first time since their European Cup triumph in 1982. It was a remarkable rise for a club that had been in the Championship just five years earlier. The fixture against Tottenham, who finished fifth that same season, now carries the added edge of two clubs competing directly for European places at the top of the English game.