Villa lose for the first time in four to leave them with seven wins in twenty nine Premier League games under Alex McLeish but the result, the season and the struggles under the manager are rendered completely irrelevant with news that Villa's beloved captain Stiliyan Petrov is suffering from leukaemia.

By the time Villa lined up the following Saturday for their match vs. 5th placed Chelsea Petrov’s diagnosis had been confirmed. Saturday, 24 March 2012 however was the date that marked legendary Villa midfielder Petrov’ final appearance for Villa. Thankfully Petrov would ultimately recover from his illness but his football career was ended at the age of 32. Petrov had made 219 appearances (206 Starts) over his 6 seasons with Villa and beyond just his playing achievements represented everything good about football. Petrov left a record behind of W87 D69 L63, 12 Goals, 13 Assists and 39 Bookings.

Gabriel Agbonlahor suffers his 75th defeat in a Villa shirt on his 245th appearance (222 Starts) to make it W95 D75 L75, 62 Goals, 31 Assists and 25 Bookings so far in his Villa career.

Stephen Ireland makes his 25th start in a Villa shirt (35 Appearances) and has now gone 8 games without a goal involvement, and 31st in total to record W8 D11 L16, 1 Goal, 2 Assists and 2 Bookings so far in his Villa career.

Off the pitch Charles N'Zogbia and Alex McLeish kiss and make up after an unseemly and unecessary spat add further woe to Villa's season.