Stiliyan Petrov returns to the scene of his Barclays Premier League debut this afternoon hoping to repeat his first inspirational Villa display.

The Bulgarian international was hugely impressive as Villa drew 1-1 with West Ham in September 2006 and was only denied what would have been a deserved debut goal by Tyrone Mears' acrobatic goal-line clearance.

Petrov has had plenty of ups and downs since then and told www.avfc.co.uk: "My debut at West Ham seems a long time ago now - it was right at the beginning of last season and both teams are very different now.

"I felt I played well and I would be happy with a similar performance in a big, big game for us this afternoon."

Victory this afternoon will secure European football, be it via the UEFA Cup or Intertoto Cup. And Petrov is firmly focussed on the job in hand.

He added: "We have worked very hard all season and now it is down to just one match. We need to produce a big performance to make sure all the hard work has not been wasted.

"West Ham will want to do well for their fans and this is a tough game. But we have done well in away games this season and hopefully we can get another win to qualify for Europe.

"We cannot control what goes on at other games so we have to concentrate on our own game. If we win the game then we can look at Everton's result."