Football Season Guide

Finished very well a difficult last season. For long Aston Villa were hoovering just above the relegation zone. Stayed in the bottom 3 for the opening 17 rounds. However, 4 consecutive wins late on saw them climb as high as sixth in the final standings. Had the longest losing streak in the top flight last term – 6 consecutive games. Those were the opening 6 matches since the young ex-Barca assistant Natalia Arroyo took over as manager in January. Her desire to see Villa play the same style as Barcelona led to these bad results. Eventually, the possession-based football she preaches began to bring wins though and the strong finale was enough to see her appointed permanently. Just like many other teams Villa opted to focus on younger players for the season ahead. With the expansion to 14 teams coming next summer there will be no relegation as such to worry about so all of Villa’s new signings are age 24 and younger. At the same time, some experienced but ageing players were released. Under Arroyo everyone that steps on the pitch must be comfortable holding on to the ball and passing it accurately. Villa play at much slower pace than most but their patience allows them to create lots of pockets of space that were exploited well late last season. Young playmaker Baijings is expected to have much larger role this term. The manager believes in her. The new centre-back Deslandes is a ball-dominant defender so she will be playing a lot too. Forwards Hanson and Nunez had injury-troubled last season. They will hope to stay fit this term. If they play Villa regularly score 2 or more goals. This happened in 5 of the only 8 games the two started together last season.