Manchester City Fixture Added
5th place in the Premier League table is perhaps a fair reflection of where Aston Villa are at the moment, but progress over the month of January was always going to present the real clue to how their season would ultimately pan out.
They’ve chalked up some excellent results against the supposed established clubs like Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea, but have come undone at home in spates of naivety.
A New Years Day clash with second place Manchester United kicks off what is a seven game test in the month of January, now that the Manchester City away fixture, which was originally meant to kick-off the season, has been rescheduled for January 20.
The Wednesday night match will kick off at 8.15pm and will be screened live on BT Sport.
Sandwiched between the two games against the Manchester clubs, are match-ups with Spurs and Everton, two teams that have regularly featured in the top four places this season. Villa then end the month with return fixtures against Burnley and Southampton; two teams they failed to beat earlier in the season.
The line-up of league games certainly gives you a clue that Dean Smith will rotate his team for the FA Cup game against Liverpool on January 8th.
If there is one blessing in disguise, at least Ross Barkley will return for the tougher tasks that present themselves in January, after missing the month of December. It’s certainly preferable than if he had missed January instead of December.
UTV
AVFC January Fixtures
- 1: Man Utd (a) 8pm
- 8: Liverpool (h) 7.45pm [FA CUP]
- 13: Tottenham (h) 8.15pm
- 16: Everton (h) 5.30pm
- 20: Man City (a) 8.15pm
- 27: Burnley (a) 6pm
- 30: Southampton (a) 8pm
See full AVFC Fixture List here
Liverpoo ? they’ll need to improve unless they are going to allow Villa to to score as many goals as last time out
And Liverpool in the Cup. Tough month