Upon hearing of the death of Jonathan and Saul, David lamented: “Thy glory, O Israel, is slain upon thy high places! How are the mighty fallen!”

Apologies for the rather frightening biblical reference, but 2010 is unlikely to go down as a glorious year in either Blue or Claret and Blue circles.

And you know what? They’re playing each other again in a little over a week.

With survival the issue have the stakes ever been higher?

While West Bromwich Albion appear to have mastered the art of nose-diving at great pace from mid-December, if you take the whole year the mightiest fallers in Premier League circles were undoubtedly Villa.

A last-gasp point earned at Chelsea kept them outside the bottom three. Wednesday's home defeat to Sunderland saw them drop into it.

A year ago they were sixth, two points from Tottenham in the fourth Champions League spot.

They’d just beaten Blackburn in the FA Cup, were about to face them again in the semi-finals of the League Cup and, okay they’d just suffered back-to-back defeats to Arsenal and Liverpool, but a first win at Old Trafford in 26 years had momentarily lifted Martin O’Neill’s side to third place.

But Villa would add only 29 more points to their tally as they limped home sixth. And they have taken only 21 points from their opening 20 matches of this current season.

Birmingham City’s unlikely midweek victory at Blackpool not only did themselves the power of good, but edged their neighbours closer to the trap door.

A year ago, similarly, just as life was rosy down the road at Villa Park, Blues were eighth in the Premier League, sitting proudly on 32 points. They were about to square up to Manchester United at St Andrew’s having not been beaten in an impressive run of 12 league and cup games, including contests against Chelsea, Man City and Liverpool.

A team containing Joe Hart, Christian Benitez and James McFadden had just brought the curtain down on the calendar year with a win at Stoke City.

But they’d add only 18 more points and finish ninth. That form continued with them taking just 19 points from their opening 19 games this season before that precious win at the seaside lifted them above Albion.

So that’s 50 points for Villa in a snicket over 12 months and 40 points for Blues. Even Wolves scraped 37 points in the year despite an almost constant battle to stay out of the bottom three.