Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill was happy to rest midfielder Gareth Barry for last night's UEFA Cup tie with Litex Lovech.

O'Neill is hoping the likes of Gareth Barry, Nigel Reo-Coker, Gabriel Agbonlahor, Martin Laursen, John Carew and Curtis Davies will be fresh for the trip to Chelsea on Sunday after being rested.

He said: "That was the idea of leaving them out. Sometimes you never know what might happen. But Gareth Barry was crying out for a break.

"He has played a lot of games, including internationals with England, and that will help him enormously.

"In normal circumstances I would also have looked to rest Stiliyan Petrov but I just wanted him to sit there in front of the back four and make sure we got through the tie."