Stoke held Aston Villa a goalless draw

Aston Villa lost ground in the race for fourth spot and a Champions League place as they were held with goalless draw by Stoke City.

In a quarrelsome game options were few as both sides cancelled each other out.

Aston Villa skipper Stiliyan Petrov fired Thomas Sorensen to tip his shot wide, while Stewart Downing's struck the side netting and James Collins headed wide.

For Stoke, Ricardo Fuller had a shot diverted over, Danny Higginbotham's intension was fended off by Stephen Warnock and Robert Huth headed over.

It was always nicely to be a close competition, with the sides suffering only one league defeat between them in 2010 - Stoke's 3-1 loss to Arsenal.