Carabao Cup: Villa will travel to League Two side Exeter City on 17 August. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

FA Cup: Because the FA format allows Premier League teams to advance directly to the third round, Villa's first game will not be known until 9 January 2018.

UEFA Europa League (UEFA Europa League): The UEFA Europa League has a complex system and odd qualifications, with four qualifying rounds.

First Round Qualifying: The winners of the UEFA Cup of Nations ranked 37 to 51 (except Liechtenstein), the runners-up of the Nations League of UEFA ranked 37 to 51 (except Liechtenstein), the third team in the UEFA ranking 22 to 51 of the Nations League (excluding Liechtenstein) and the three UEFA Fair Play Award countries. A total of 46 teams will play a two-legged knockout match between home and away, with the winner advancing to the next round.

Second Round Qualifying: The 23 teams who won the first round, plus another 57 teams, will play a two-legged knockout round of home and away. The 57 teams are: UEFA domestic cup winners ranked 30 to 53, runners-up in the domestic top flight ranked 19 to 34, third place in the domestic top league ranked 16 to 21, fourth place in the domestic top flight ranked 10 to 15, and fifth place in the domestic top flight ranked 7 to 9.

Third Round Qualifier: The 40 teams who won the second round, plus another 30 teams, will play a two-legged home-and-away knockout round. The other 30 teams are: UEFA 18-29 domestic cup winners, 16-18 runners-up in the domestic top league, 10 to 15 domestic top league third-place teams, 7th to 9th domestic top flight fourth, 4th to 6th domestic top flight fifth, 1st to 3rd domestic top flight sixth.

Fourth Round Qualifying: The 35 teams from the third round, plus another 41 teams, will play a total of 76 teams in a two-legged knockout round of home and away. The other 41 teams are: the 15 teams eliminated from the third qualifying round of the Champions League, the winners of the domestic cups ranked 1 to 17 in UEFA, the third place in the domestic top flight ranked 7 to 9, the fourth place in the domestic top flight ranked 4 to 6, and the teams ranked 1 to 3 in the fifth place in the league of the Football Association.

After the fourth qualifying round, the 38 teams who won the Champions League, together with the 10 teams eliminated in the final qualifying round of the Champions League and the defending champions of the Europa League, made a total of 48 teams to advance to the group stage of the Europa League. (If a national cup winner qualifies for the Champions League, the runners-up of that country's cup will take their place in the Europa League.) ）

Then there is the Europa League round of 32 knockout round, which includes 24 teams from the top two teams in 12 groups in the group stage, and the third-place finishers in the eight groups in the group stage of the Champions League. The winner of the 16 matchups advances to the round of 16 knockout rounds, followed by the quarter-finals and semi-finals.

Overall, FA Cup winners Villa will play a two-legged knockout round in the fourth qualifying round on 23 August, against the remaining teams after the first three qualifiers, depending on who will be drawn.

All kinds of cup competitions are okay, the entire Premier League schedule is very unfavorable for Aston Villa, especially in the opening stage, which can be called a more terrifying schedule than the Christmas schedule, the first eight games need to face Tottenham, Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal five strong teams, but it is not all killed, 4 of the 5 games are at home, fortunately in misfortune.

In fact, the Premier League schedule is randomly generated by the computer, but the process of compiling this computer program is operated by people, which is a very large system project, and in March, the Premier League will send a form to each club to collect questions: Are there any days when you don't want to play a home game? Who do you want to play on Boxing Day? Which team don't you want to play against on Boxing Day? These will be taken into account in the program.

There are more games and more teams in the Premier League, and there are too many factors to consider when it comes to a commercial league of this level in the Premier League, not a league that can determine the order of the round-robin game with a simple snake choreography. For example, derby rivals like Liverpool and Everton should never play at home on the same weekend. In fact, all Premier League teams are paired with another team and avoid playing at home at the same time. And this is not necessarily the Premier League, as there are still 72 lower league teams in England and many amateur league teams within the FA structure to take into account. West Ham, for example, are paired with neighbours and League Two side Daegenham, but neighbouring Southend also asked not to play at home when West Ham are playing because it will affect their attendance. Southend is actually in the Essex area of London, and there is another team here, Coucester, and they and Southend are the real team, but Cochester and Ipsend share the same security team, so they can't play at home at the same time, and the traffic line dictates that Ipswich and Norwich can't play at home on the same day...... In other words, once West Ham ask for a change of home, the ripple effect could affect Norwich all the way to 108 miles away! It's weird enough, such a complex chain reaction.

Aston Villa and Birmingham are a pair of sworn enemies in the same city, and they are also a pair in the computer program. Historically, Aston Villa was mainly composed of Birmingham's local businessmen, church members and other middle classes, and there was a great conflict with Birmingham, the city's rival Birmingham, who represented the working class, in terms of economic interests in daily life, so the Birmingham derby has also become a unique scenery in English football. The red Aston Villa and the blue Birmingham both scoff at each other's colors, which belongs to Birmingham and England's derby culture.

This pairing consideration is only one factor to be considered by the schedule compilation computer, in addition to the fact that a team cannot play three consecutive home games in the league; To ensure that the travel costs of lower-tier teams are reduced, don't arrange for them to play away from home before or after an FA Cup home game; Sensitive matches should not be scheduled in the first and last rounds of the season, and derbies should not be scheduled in midweek. In some cities, there are horse racing conventions, and the week's races are moved to Fridays; Another example is the traditional Boxing Day match, which requires manual choreography because the computer cannot understand parameters such as the distance of the stadium......

It's so complicated, even if he knows that he is facing the cold computer, Li Haolong always feels like he was stabbed by someone in the back, and then the person took a candy out to coax you, good, it doesn't hurt, just eat a candy. "Okay, you fart, such a big opening, can you stop the bleeding by giving a piece of candy?" Li Haolong couldn't help cursing in his heart, but he had a stubborn heart, and although he complained, he would never give up on himself.

This schedule seems fair, but in fact there are loopholes, because when the computer can't understand it, it can be arranged by hand. That's reverie, Li Haolong doesn't want to spend the belly of a gentleman with the heart of a villain, but this schedule is too ruthless for the Villa team, there is always a feeling of being targeted, but in fact, there are always teams complaining about the schedule every year, including Manchester United and Arsenal, have complained about the schedule, after all, it is impossible to be exhaustive, and this year's unlucky role was just caught up by Li Haolong.

"Come on, Premier League, I'm here, let's see who is ruthless!" Li Haolong said in his heart.

PS: These two chapters are a little watery, and I copied a lot of ready-made ones, but this didn't take less time to make balls, and this schedule alone took more than two hours, and I don't know if it's suitable or not, and I'm a little apprehensive in my heart.