O’Leary takes strategy from ’89 Cup game
O'Leary was part of the Arsenal side that went to Liverpool for the final league match of the 1988-89 season needing to achieve an unlikely two goal victory to pip the Merseysiders for the title.
He remembers all the pre-match talk about needing to strike early to have any chance of toppling the Reds by the required margin except from the Gunners manager George Graham.
Graham stressed the need to stay calm and not adopt a gung-ho approach and it was eventually second half goals from Alan Smith and one in the dying seconds from Michael Thomas that sent the championship to Highbury.
That memory has remained with O'Leary and he will relay the same message to his Villa players as they look to recover from a 5-2 mauling in the first leg at the Reebok Stadium last Wednesday.
O'Leary told the Press Association: "The message will be 'don't panic'. It will be great if we get an early goal but it will not be the end of the world if we don't achieve that.
"What we have to try and do is score three times in 90 minutes and keep a clean sheet. It doesn't matter when the goals are scored the first minute or the last. You have got to keep going.
"I remember that Arsenal game at Anfield in 1989 and everyone was saying to us 'you've got to score a goal in the first five minutes'. Why?
"George Graham was saying 'why do we have to score early or before half-time?' He told us to just keep plugging away and, if the chances came along, to take them.
"George was telling us completely different to everyone else but we got a couple of opportunities, put them away and won the title.
"We have to be the same on Tuesday. We'll try and play attacking football but not ridiculous gung-ho stuff and if the chances come, we've got to take them. I think that is the important thing."
The onus will fall on either Peter Crouch and Marcus Allback to partner Darius Vassell as 16-goal leading scorer Juan Pablo Angel will be absent with a leg injury.
The signs are not encouraging with Crouch and Allback having only mustered one goal between them for Villa this season, although the former did manage to score during a loan spell at Norwich.
O'Leary is aware that, apart from needing to hit the goal trail, Villa have to demonstrate a defensive solidarity that was lacking in the first leg.
He said: "The reason the players have been down for the last few days is that they realise how poorly they defended at Bolton.
"They know they let themselves down. They got back in the game at 3-2 but then gave another couple of soft goals away to leave us with the task facing us. They have a chance to put that right."
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
