Defeat at Everton and Liverpool's 2-2 draw at Man City saw the Reds leap-frog Blues into eighth place in the table.
I'm sure however that most Blues fans would, before the season started, have settled for going into the year 2004 in 9th place in the table with a healthy 26 points on the board, above the Villa and with 20 games still to play.Results on Sunday, 28th December 2003 Barclaycard Premiership Aston Villa (1) 3 Fulham (0) 0 Bolton Wanderers (1) 2 Leicester City (1) 2 Chelsea (0) 3 Portsmouth (0) 0 Everton (0) 1 Birmingham City (0) 0 Manchester City (1) 2 Liverpool (0) 2 Middlesbrough (0) 0 Manchester United (1) 1 Newcastle United (0) 0 Blackburn Rovers (0) 1 Tottenham Hotspur (0) 0 Charlton Athletic (0) 1 Wolverhampton Wanderers (1) 3 Leeds United (1) 1