The last time we met Tuesday's opponents in the festive fixture was in 2000, when a solitary goal by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was enough to earn three points at Villa Park.
The Norwegian connected with David Beckham's cross to head past David James in the 85th minute to preserve an eight-point lead at the summit.
It had Sir Alex Ferguson exclaiming that Ole was one of the best finishers he had worked with, and said: "The important thing about this team is they keep going, when maybe some other teams would have settled for 0-0.
"Maybe, when we look back at the end of the season, we will say that was a big win.