Villa boss Martin O’Neill has hinted he could finally be prepared to alter his starting line-up to accommodate £20million pair James Milner and Carlos Cuellar.

O’Neill is the only manager to have named an unchanged line-up for every Premier League game so far this season.

But Villa’s run of three straight wins came crashing to a halt with a tame performance at Chelsea last weekend, which has left the statistic in danger of being consigned to the history books when Portsmouth visit a week on Saturday.

Milner and Cuellar came on as half-time substitutes at Stamford Bridge – when Villa were already 2-0 behind – and played their part in performing a damage limitation job.

In defence, the obvious candidate to make way for Cuellar would be Curtis Davies, while Nigel Reo-Coker currently occupies club record signing Milner’s preferred right-midfield berth.

O’Neill said: “My thinking has not changed. I’ve made my views clear on the two lads. I think they are excellent, they are great acquisitions and it was difficult to change a winning side before, they appreciated that.”

Milner insists players in the team should only expect to keep their place if they perform – something which cannot be said for all 11 of the players who faced Chelsea.

He said: “There is competition for places and the key to that is ‘if you play well you keep your place’. That’s the way it should be. I’d be delighted if we won every game this season, sat on the bench and we were successful.”

O’Neill admits the Chelsea defeat makes beating Pompey even more important.

He said: “Portsmouth is absolutely vital. It’s a really, really big game. They have won a couple themselves and will be feeling a lot better than they did at the start of the season. They can score goals, they are strong.

“They did brilliantly last season by winning the FA Cup. Manager Harry Redknapp has done a fantastic job.”

Villa will also have to deal with the threat of two in-form England strikers they were linked with prior to their Pompey moves, ex-Villan Peter Crouch and Jermain Defoe.

O’Neill added: “Both of them are really good players. I think they’ve proved that before – Crouch with Villa and Liverpool.”