John Carew

John Carew, Carew. He's bigger than me and you. He's gonna score one or two. So sing the fans at every home and away game.

Well, Villa's man mountain has certainly bagged plenty of goals for Villa, finishing as leading scorer for the past three seasons.

Carew arrived at Villa with a big reputation, following impressive stints at clubs like Valencia, Roma and Lyon and he more than lived up to that, with some terrific performances in claret and blue.

In that opening campaign, he provided an aerial threat that had been missing for the previous few seasons but he also proved to be good on the floor with some tremendous hold-up play.

He missed a huge chunk of 2008-09 through injury but still finished as the leading scorer for the second consecutive campaign.

Despite his two-month absence, the Norwegian marksman hit a total of 15 league and cup goals - two more than his haul for the previous season.

He also won the award for Villa's goal of the season, a spectacular sidefoot volley from the edge of the penalty area in the 2-2 home draw against Stoke City.

And even when he wasn't scoring, the tall, powerful striker posed a constant threat to opposition defences, holding the ball up well and creating space for the likes of Gabby Agbonlaghor and Ashley Young.

In the 2009-10 term, he also suffered with injury problems but again completed the campaign as the top man, with 17 goals.

His hat-trick against Reading in the FA Cup was the highlight as he single-handedly rescued the tie.

Having played initially in his home country, Carew's career took him to Spain, Italy, Turkey and France but he found Premier League football very much to his liking since his arrival from Lyon in a deal which saw Czech international Milan Baros move in the opposite direction.