In January's winter transfer window, there are just six games, three league games, one FA Cup and two League Cup games. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

After a big win over Hull City, Villa once again faced an even weaker opponent. In the third round of the FA Cup, Villa did not face an opponent of Tottenham's level at the beginning of the season, as they will host League One side Bolton Wanderers this time. In the end, Villa still won the opponent 3:1 with a full substitute lineup and advanced to the next round of the FA Cup.

And after this game, despite the loose schedule, the remaining four games will not be so easy to deal with.

First up were the two league games, with Villa facing Manchester United and Arsenal respectively.

Joseph, who was appointed as the new Manchester United boss last season, finally saw his tactical counter-attacks pay off at United, which also saw the Red Devils finish fifth in the first half of the season and return to the European qualification places. On the first day of the winter transfer window, Manchester United announced the latest transfer information, and the "Iron Guard" Brad from Italy announced that he had joined Manchester United.

Wang Shuai is no stranger to some of the world's well-known stars, and he also knows that Brad is one of the top defenders in the world today, and after reading Brad's player information, Wang Shuai found that he turned out to be a master player. As far as Wang Shuai has now, Brad is also the only master defender in Wang Shuai's cognition.

The master defender will undoubtedly add to Joseph's counter-attacking tactics and cause problems for Villa, who will next challenge Manchester United.

1:1, Villa and Manchester United finally drew at Old Trafford.

The next game at home to Arsenal will be much easier for Villa. On the one hand, Arsenal's core striker Obilaiye has not fully recovered from his injury and is unable to play. On the other hand, Arsenal's target for the winter has not yet joined the team due to formalities, which has brought Villa a cheaper.

At 2:0, Villa defended three points at home and successfully completed the season double Arsenal.

After three league games, Villa won 2 and drew 1 to continue to lead the standings. But at the same time, Liverpool and Manchester City have won all three games, and the gap between the two teams and Villa has also narrowed the distance to one win. Chelsea, on the other hand, drew with West Bromwich Albion and Leicester City in the 21st and 22nd rounds of the league respectively, stretching the gap to Villa to eight points and third-placed Manchester City to five points. It can be seen that the Blues' primary goal now should be to change from a title race to a return to the top three.

Although Villa remain top of the table, the gap is narrowing and their Carabao Cup campaign has suffered setbacks.

Villa's opponent in the Carabao Cup semi-finals is Liverpool, who are currently second in the league. In the face of this team that can rank first in the Premier League in terms of attacking power, Wang Shuai gave up the previous style of playing to strengthen the defense and started an offensive battle with the Red Army.

In the end, the two teams contributed a total of 14 goals in the two-legged semi-finals, and the two teams drew 7-7. Unfortunately, defending champions Villa missed out on the Carabao Cup final due to a disadvantage in away goals.

Although he lost, Wang Shuai paid more attention to the performance of the players. In both games, Ribery played a total of 30 minutes as a substitute. In that half-hour playing time, Ribery contributed a total of one goal and one assist.

In the past six months, Wang Shuai gave the vast majority of the "overtraining" places to Ribery, which made Ribery's attributes a qualitative leap. And now, Ribery has finally turned his stats into on-the-field stats. Although he is not yet enough to replace Lowry as the starter, Wang Shuai knows that day is not far off.

……

After the end of January, Villa's February schedule has suddenly tightened.

Despite being eliminated in the Carabao Cup, this season's FA Cup has also begun, and the knockout stages of the Europa League will also be played in February, which means Villa still have to play on three fronts.

Four league games, two FA Cups, two Europa League games, that's all Aston Villa had to do in February. Not to mention the intensity of the tournament, there is no shortage of heavyweight opponents among them.

On 8 February, after two more league games, the fourth round of the FA Cup kicks off, and Villa will once again continue their 'good luck' from last season when they host Manchester City.

Of course, this draw result is not a good thing for Villa, and the same is true for the Blue Moon. Thanks to the Champions League schedule, in this FA Cup game, Manchester City, which is also a third-tier battle, is simply unable to send the main force to play, coupled with a strong opponent like Villa, Manchester City is suffering.

2:0, with one goal each from Wang Shuai and Ibrahimovic, Villa easily won the blue moon in the state of the sick cat at home.

After the fourth round of the FA Cup, Villa will continue to compete in Europe. Their opponents in the last 32 of the Europa League are Genk from the Belgian First Division.

In the past ten years, Belgium's football industry has developed rapidly, and while sending many top players to the five major leagues, the level of the domestic league has also been improving day by day. As one of the four traditional strong teams in the league, Genk's strength should not be underestimated.

It's just that this is relative to other teams, and for Aston Villa, who are already wrestling with the top teams in the Premier League, Genk is obviously not at this level.

And at this stage of the knockout round, Wang Shuai did not underestimate any opponent, even if he knew that the opponent's strength was not as good as his own, Wang Shuai still sent the whole main force to fight. As a result, Villa swept their opponents 6-0 over two legs and easily advanced to the round of 16.

However, the all-out effort in the Europa League also cost Villa a lot.

The last two league games in February, both of which came immediately after the Europa League, gave Villa a taste of the pain of Manchester City before, not to mention that both games were played away from home.

On 18 February, Villa drew 1-1 with Leicester City.

On the 25th, 1:3 away to Liverpool.

After winning Arsenal twice in the league, Villa was also reported back and beaten by Liverpool.

In fact, Liverpool are also victims of European competition, they lost 4-1 to Manchester United in the league in early February. Even worse was Chelsea, the reigning Premier League champions, who were beaten 5-1 by Manchester City in the league. Manchester City, who obviously beat Chelsea, were not happy for long, not only losing the FA Cup, but also drawing with Arsenal and Hull City at the bottom of the league in the next two league games.

Thanks to these games, Villa are still at the top of the table despite their poor league results in February. It's just that Liverpool, who is now second in the league, has only goal difference left with them.