Source: Team_Talk
Zola: O'Neill cost me a medal
And Zola would relish the chance to exact a certain kind of revenge by masterminding a victory over O'Neill's Aston Villa on Saturday that would boost West Ham's bid for Europa League qualification.
Exactly a decade ago this weekend, Leicester scored twice in the last eight minutes at Stamford Bridge to hold Zola's Chelsea to a 2-2 draw.
Chelsea only lost three league matches that season but ended up finishing third behind Manchester United and Arsenal after drawing four of their last seven games.
Zola recalled: "I lost a championship because of Martin and his team. One of the draws was against Leicester in a crucial game. We were winning 2-0 with 10 minutes to go and they got two goals.
"That was a big blow because with a victory we would have been top of the league.
"It was always a horrible game to play against Leicester because it was tough. Martin O'Neill always does a good job and Aston Villa have had an unbelievable season."
No West Ham hearts would have gone out to arch-rivals Chelsea at the time but 10 years on and the Hammers may just reap the benefits.
Zola has steadied the ship at West Ham after a turbulent start to the season - but he is not content with mid-table safety.
West Ham head to Villa Park seventh in the Premier League table and will need to fend off late-season challenges from Fulham, Wigan and Spurs to make it into Europe.
And Zola has called on the injury-hit Hammers to produce one final push for Europe - starting on Saturday against a Villa side without a win in 10 games.
"Considering all the circumstances I believe it has been a good season and I could sit here relaxed with the job done - but straight away I have another objective and I push myself every day to achieve that," said Zola.
"Villa are a team you have to respect but we will go there with no fear, that is for sure.
"When we played Villa at home we felt we were unlucky to lose and maybe they are not as dangerous now as they were at the beginning of the season.
"We are happy with our situation (in seventh place) but we know it is going to be hard until the end. We are going to have our best try and we will see in the end if we can make it into Europe."
Villa battled hard to earn a 3-3 against Everton last weekend but their bid for Champions League qualification has begun to run out of steam after a long campaign that started way back on July 19.
Zola would face similar issues if West Ham qualify for Europe but he is confident the club, despite all their off-field issues, are well-equipped for the step up.
"This is a very ambitious club. West Ham has a good platform to build up something important for the future," he said.
"We want to build it slowly and with attention. We are not big spenders but we spend the money wisely and we work hard to make it happen.
"Arsenal was one of the models this club was looking at. It is what we want to do. I think it is working OK at the moment and we want to improve.
Certainly Arsenal is a team I admire very much and to do what they do is something we would like to do.
"It is going to be very difficult to be a monster like Manchester United or Arsenal because we don't have the possibilities.
"We want to build something differently. Maybe it will be a longer-term project but one day we want to be competing with those teams."
Zola hopes to have Radoslav Kovac available for the trip to Villa Park but there are still question marks over Scott Parker, who is struggling with a groin injury.
