Aston Villa square off against Viking FK in the Champions League on Wednesday night with the expectation of making light work of their opponents.

That perception is justified. After all, the Norwegian club have played just 32 European fixtures - including qualifying games - since the last time that they made the trip for a competitive match in England in 2002.

However, not only are there several statistics which suggest that Unai Emery will have concerns over the Eliteserien champions, the last time that they faced Premier League opposition saw them achieve a result that has stood the test of time in their history.

Having only finished in sixth place in the 2001-02 Premier League and suffered a second-round exit to Hapoel Tel Aviv in the UEFA Cup 12 months earlier, everyone at Chelsea were wary of another early exit from Europe.

Despite a summer of business where their only notable addition was the signing of little-known Spaniard Enrique de Lucas on a free transfer, Chelsea still possessed a squad that featured John Terry, Marcel Desailly, Emmanuel Petit, Frank Lampard and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink.

Such was the quality in the senior ranks that Chelsea ultimately achieved Champions League qualification that campaign, avoided going out of business and attracted Roman Abramovich to Stamford Bridge, but in October 2002, Viking FK were knocking the West Londoners out of Europe.

How Viking FK beat Chelsea in 2002-03 UEFA Cup

At this point in their history, Viking FK were no strangers to participating in the UEFA Cup. In the previous season, they had defeated Brotjno and Kilmarnock before losing 3-0 on aggregate to Hertha Berlin in the third round.

Nevertheless, this was a Chelsea side that had started the 2002-03 Premier League with a seven-game unbeaten run before losing to a Paolo Di Canio-inspired West Ham United at Stamford Bridge.

Nine days prior to that setback, Chelsea had recorded a 2-1 win over Viking in the first leg of their first-round tie at Stamford Bridge. Hasselbaink and De Lucas had given Chelsea a two-goal lead after 69 minutes and all seemed to be going to plan heading into the final minute.

However, Ben Wright - a West German-born Englishman who had previously played for the likes of Kettering and Woking - scored a 90th-minute effort that halved the deficit and ultimately changed the direction of the tie.

Although Chelsea travelled to Norway on the back of that West Ham defeat, Claudio Ranieri named a strong team for the second leg, one which included Carlo Cudicini, Jesper Gronkjaer and Gianfranco Zola as well as some of the already-mentioned stars.

However, by the 35th minute, Chelsea were losing 3-2 on aggregate, Morten Berre and Peter Kopteff putting Viking FK 2-0 ahead on the night.

Lampard made it 2-1 just before half time, scoring a potentially-pivotal away goal, and in the 62th minute, Terry would cancel out an effort from Erik Nevland - formerly of Manchester United - that had been netted two minutes earlier.

Not only did Chelsea remain level on aggregate heading into the 88th minute, they were on the brink of progression through the now-abolished away-goal rule.

Instead, Nevland nipped in front of Graeme Le Saux to send a first-time finish into the bottom corner from 10 yards, sparking pandemonium at the Stavanger Stadion that had just 5,555 people in attendance. Viking FK would go on to lose 4-1 to Celta Vigo on aggregate in the next round.

However, it was the fact that they did not play another European fixture for nearly three years - a UEFA Cup first-round qualifying tie against Northern Irish side Portadown - that really emphasised the magnitude of their achievement that night against Chelsea.

At the same time as Viking FK were experiencing the earliest stage of the UEFA Cup, Chelsea were in the infancy of the Jose Mourinho era, highlighting the different courses that they had taken on that chilly October night in 2002.