After loaning two youngsters to Stoke City, Blackburn have a Christmas fixture ahead of them.

Christmas is a very important fixture in England. Especially for the team that aims to win the championship, it is a game that needs to be taken seriously. Many strong teams have done well in the previous games, but at Christmas, there are not a few who are left behind because of the intensive schedule.

Therefore, whether they can pass the Christmas schedule will be a huge test for the champion team.

It's Christmas fixtures. But it's a devil's schedule for Blackburn. Blackburn Rovers around Christmas, the three teams they met were all Premier League powerhouses.

On December 24, in the seventeenth round of the Premier League, Blackburn played Aston Villa at home.

On December 26, in the eighteenth round of the English Premier League, Blackburn challenged Manchester United away.

On December 28, in the 19th round of the English Premier League, Blackburn Harbourne challenged Newcastle United away.

All three teams are the absolute powerhouses in the Premier League at the moment. Needless to say, Manchester United has been a Premier League powerhouse since the inception of the Premier League. So far, United have only been outside the third place, the rest of the time in the top three.

And before Blackburn's strong rise, they had never fallen out of the top two in the Premier League. Although Manchester United's results have been a little bad in recent seasons, no one dares to ignore Ferguson, an old man, and Manchester United.

Newcastle United have also had good results in recent seasons. Especially after Robson took over, Newcastle United often hit the top four positions in the Premier League.

Last season, Newcastle beat Liverpool and Chelsea to become the fourth place in the Premier League.

It's a pity that Newcastle failed to break through in the Champions League group stage this season. But Newcastle are still doing very well in the Premier League.

As for Aston Villa, they are also a Premier League powerhouse.

In recent seasons, Villa have not been able to keep up with Blackburn, Arsenal and Manchester United. However, the results were able to stay within the top eight. Generally in sixth or seventh place, and when the performance is good, it can even be ranked fifth.

Aston Villa are the quintessential Group 2 core team. His results are not too bad, but he does not have the strength to challenge for the first group. This kind of team is a strong team, and if you are not careful, you may be bitten out of a piece of meat by him.

Encountering this kind of devilish schedule, George can only admit that he is unlucky.

One game in two days was already a headache for George. And now playing three strong teams in a row, George's head is even bigger. How to rotate players reasonably and what tactics to use to play the game. These are all things that George needs to think about.

But before George could think about it, the seventeenth round of the Premier League began.

On 24 December, Blackburn Rovers host Aston Villa.

Speaking of the current Villa, there are very few stars that Chinese fans are familiar with. Even if there is, it is a young player who has not yet become famous. There are only a few good players in Villa right now.

Vassell and Crouch in the front, Melberg in the backline, and Gareth. Barry. However, at this time, Crouch was still a hairy boy with average strength. At Villa, they are not taken seriously, that is, they just play as substitutes.

Vassell is a rising star in the Premier League. Vassell, who is fast and in excellent physical condition, is the current Villa striker.

Melberry is not well-known, but he is a powerful cadre. He is the main central defender of the Swedish national team.

Since it was the first game on the Devils' schedule, George was certainly hoping to get off to a good start.

Although Villa's strength is good, it is still much worse than Blackburn. Especially in midfield, Villa's quality is completely incomparable to Blackburn's.

At this time, Barry was not the later defender of the England national team. Not the midfielder who is valued by McClaren and Fabio Capello and is known as a solution to the problem of double virtues.

A few years later, Barry was doing extremely well in the midfield position. Even in history, Benitez preferred to abandon Alonso in order to chase Barry. In the end, Alonso left Liverpool in a fit of rage. It also began the fuse of Liverpool's declining results.

You can imagine how good Barry was at Villa at that time.

However, at this time, Barry is still playing in the left midfield position at Villa.

This is the same position that was just changed last season. When Barry debuted, he even played as a centre-back, a full-back, and performed very well at left-back. For a while, he even became a left-back substitute for the England national team.

Later Ashley. Cole's growth has given England left-back the position of Ashley. Cole and Daniel. Morrison's two generals. Barry will have to be sent to the Under-21 national team.

By last season, Barry had become the left midfielder for Villa. Good performance.

Therefore, the current Villa team, the midfield defense and organization of the attack are very poor.

Blackburn Rovers took a first-half lead over Villa thanks to a scramble from inside the box by Klose. In the second half, a free-kick from Pire's scored the second goal of the game.

However, in the 76th minute of the game, Alonso was injured and fell to the ground in a scramble with Bari.

It almost made George lose his soul.

Now Blackburn, Alonso is George's most relied on midfielder. If he was really hurt, then George would be crying.

But the good thing is that it was a false alarm.

Alonso's injuries are not serious. It's just a hard injury, and it hurts a little when my foot touches my foot. As long as the pain is over, then you can still be alive.

But George didn't dare to be careless.

Quickly used Parker to replace Alonso.

Alonso played a lot of games. Even Alonso made it to the Spanish national team last season because of his outstanding performances at Blackburn. And began to strongly attack the main positions of Baraja and Albelda.

Blackburn, on the other hand, relied on Alonso.

So Alonso really can't rest. The moment George saw Alonso fall to the ground injured, his heart was about to jump out. Fortunately, it was a false alarm, but George still didn't dare to be careless.

A 2-0 win over Villa and a two-day win over Manchester United.

In fact, George's plan is to continue to use Alonso. But playing against Villa scared George too much. So George put Alonso on the bench. George didn't dare to be careless, what if Alonso was really hurt.

Still, Alonso should be given a rest. If there are too many games, even the Iron Man may get injured.

Parker, good strength.

However, the midfield that supports Blackburn Rovers is still lacking. Or it's not a matter of strength, there are also a lot of problems in cooperation. At Manchester United's home stadium, although Blackburn Rovers worked hard, they were still unable to withstand Manchester United's attack.

Keane received a cross from the flank and scored the only goal of the game with a flick of his head.

George could only consign a 0-1 defeat on the road.

The devil's schedule tests the depth of the bench, perseverance and so on.

It could be the win over Arsenal and the Champions League group stage breakout that ran out of luck for Blackburn. After losing to Manchester United, Blackburn Rovers suffered another defeat against Newcastle.

Because Campbell had a minor injury, George asked Lescote to replace Campbell to be on the safe side.

Unexpectedly, Lescott failed to withstand Shearer's onslaught.

In the end, George lost 1-2 again on the road. In the Devil's Schedule is two consecutive defeats.

George's brow was getting tighter.

Because after December, Blackburn's side of the injury is also increasing. In previous years, although there were some injuries, they were not serious, or not very common. For Blackburn's team doctor, George is quite satisfied.

Blackburn have rarely had extensive injuries over the years.

This is also a guarantee that Blackburn will be able to get good results. But this season has started with more injuries on Blackburn's side. Don't say that Hargreaves needs to stay in bed for three months, and after his comeback, no one knows if it will happen again.

In addition to Hargreaves, Miku has also had more injuries this season. Sometimes it takes a week, sometimes it takes two weeks. There are so many minor injuries that there are.

And Pire, though, is slightly better than Miku.

But Pire has also had two injuries this season. Although they were all minor injuries, they also delayed the game.

Campbell didn't know why, and there were quite a few minor injuries.

Even Sagnol, who has been disease-free, has been plagued by some injuries.

This made George quite dissatisfied.

But there is no way, this is a natural disaster.

The Christmas schedule was a complete failure. Three games have won one and lost two, accumulating only three points.

And several of Blackburn's opponents have much better results than Blackburn. Let's talk about Manchester United first, Manchester United have two wins and one loss in the Christmas schedule, accumulating six points.

Manchester United won 2-1 away at Tottenham Hotspur in the 17th round of the Premier League, 1-0 at home to Blackburn Rovers in the 18th round of the Premier League, and lost 0-1 to Wolves in the 19th round of the Premier League. It was an accident.

Needless to say, Blackburn Hotspur can also be regarded as a powerhouse in the Premier League. But Manchester United won them all.

And Wolves are a team that is in the relegation zone. He is still in the bottom of the Premier League. Manchester United turned out to lose to such an opponent.

Chelsea, who have invested heavily this season, have not done badly.

They also had a record of two wins and one loss in the Christmas schedule.

First, they won 1-0 at home to Charlton Athletic, and then they were beaten 4-2 by Charlton in the next away game. Back at home, they were in good form and won 3-0 against Portsmouth.

Only Arsenal have the best results.

In the fifteenth round of the Premier League, Arsenal lost 0-2 at home to Blackburn. In the next four games, Arsenal never lost again.

In the sixteenth round of the Premier League, Arsenal defeated Leicester City 2-1 away. Heading into the Christmas fixtures, Arsenal's performance is still outstanding. In the seventeenth round of the Premier League, the away team was forced to draw 0-0 by Bolton. However, they were followed by a 3-0 win at home to Wolves and then a 1-0 win away to Southampton.

This is the end of the Premier League half-season.

In 19 games, Arsenal have 13 wins, 5 draws and 1 loss, accumulating 44 points. It is currently at the top of the list.

(To be continued)