Jack Grealish of Aston Villa Photo: VCG

Aston Villa are one of the oldest clubs in English football and as such the Birmingham giants have been in a large number of cup finals. They were founder members of the Football League in 1888.

As it stands, they will play against Manchester City at Wembley on ­Sunday in the Carabao Cup final, a ninth League Cup final for the Villans.

The Villa fans will be there in full voice - they have sold their 30,000 ticket allocation for a first trip to Wembley since meeting Derby County in last season's playoff final and a first proper cup final since the FA Cup meeting with Arsenal in the 2015 final.

Dean Smith's side are obviously no strangers to the "Home of English Football" and they will be hoping to add an 16th cup win to their trophy cabinet.

In between them stand the holders, Manchester City, who won last year after a penalty shootout.

City have won six League Cup trophies, including four of the last six seasons. This might also be their last chance to win another trophy this season.

League Cup winners



How will that play into Dean Smith's side's hand as they look to outwit Pep Guardiola and his Manchester City side? Perhaps history can be on the side of the Villans.

Villa won the first ever League Cup in 1961, beating Rotherham United over two legs with a 3-0 win in the reverse fixture securing a 3-2 win. The debut winners also went closest to becoming the first team to win a second League Cup title.

They then felt defeat two years later in the worst way: losing to Birmingham City over two legs, thanks to a 3-1 loss at St Andrews and a 0-0 second leg draw at Villa Park.

In 1967, the League Cup moved its finals to Wembley but Villa would have to wait until the 1917 final to experience a first trip to London for the tournament finale.

There they would face Tottenham Hotspur in front of 100,000 fans but the large crowd would not have left happy if they were of the Claret and Blue persuasion, with Villa losing the one-off final 2-0 to Bill Nicholson's side thanks to a pair of goals from Spurs forward Martin Chivers.

Four years later, Villa returned to Wembley under club legend Ron Saunders where they would take on Norwich City for the trophy.

A Ray Graydon goal in the 81st minute would be the only thing to separate the sides on the day and Villa secured their second ever League Cup win. 

Saunders had his own personal in his third consecutive final as a manager, finding redemption after losing with Norwich in 1973 and Manchester City in 1974.

Villa would be back again three years later but there would be no glory at Wembley. 

A 0-0 draw with Everton in the final would see a replay at Sheffield Wedneday's Hillsborough Stadium before another draw - 1-1 after extra time rather than goalless after 90 minutes this time - would mean another game at Old Trafford, the home of Manchester United.

That third and final of that year's League Cup ended with a dramatic 3-2 win to Villa. It took extra time to divide the teams and the last word came from the boot of Brian Little, who would later manage the club, scoring his second goal of the match.

Little ended the longest cup final in English football, which took place over five weeks from March 12 to April 13, taking in three different stadiums and an aggregate attendance of more than 205,000.

Victory would come again in the next two League Cup appearances for Villa. First, it was the 1993-94 final against Manchester United.

Alex Ferguson's Red Devils were going for an unprecedented domestic treble - they would go on to win the Premier League and FA Cup - but Ron Atkinson's side stopped them in their tracks.

Villa would finish the league in 10th but a Dean Saunders brace and one from Dalian Atkinson saw Ferguson's Manchester United predecessor win 3-1 at Wembley.

Atkinson saw his side win again two years later with a 3-0 over Leeds United. Serbian striker Savo Milosevic opened the scoring before half-time before Ian Taylor and Dwight Yorke added two more in the second half.

There was disappointment to come in the 2009-10 season, with defeat to Manchester United thanks to comeback goals from Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen after a James Milner penalty opened the scoring.

Glorious FA Cup history

As for the FA Cup, the mighty Villa were winners back in the competition's early days, even before the Football League was founded.

Aston Villa won the 1887 final at the Kennington Oval, beating local rivals West Bromwich Albion 2-0 to lift the cup.

Within a decade the side had won again in 1895 over West Brom then lost another final - a 3-0 reverse to previous finalists West Brom at the Oval - before beating The Baggies again, this time 1-0 for a third trophy.

Villa's first win of the new century, and fourth overall, came in the 1904-05 season with a 1-0 win over Newcastle United at Crystal Palace.

In 1912-13 they won again, victory coming over Sunderland thanks to Tommy Barber, and then again in the 1919-20 season after World War I interrupted football, with another 1-0 win over Huddersfield Town in extra time.

It would be three decades until another win came their way, coming over United's Busby Babes at Wembley in a 2-1 win. The result was different the next time Villa made the final in 1999-2000 when Chelsea won 1-0 thanks to Roberto di Matteo.

A similar story awaited in 2014-15 when Arsenal beat Villa 4-0 as the Birmingham side barely survived the Premier League season, finishing fourth bottom.

They have been down since but not out and there is no reason for Villa fans to think that a 16th cup cannot be won over the favorites on Sunday.