Aston Villa

Sunday marks the beginning of the 2018/19 Women’s Super League season. With a number of top flight ladies teams preparing to take to the pitch, fans are eager to see their beloved club’s journey through the WSL.

And to celebrate the start of the new season, we are going to take a look at how the previous seasons panned out. From the highest scoring clubs and players to the modernized approach to their scheduling and promotions, this article has got it covered. So let’s review what we know so far about the WSL and see what will be in-store for the club’s and spectators during their latest campaign.

Last Season’s Fixtures

Winners of the 2017/18 FA WSL tournament were Chelsea Ladies who achieved 44 points. There was a considerable amount of points difference between the other top 5 teams from the last season. Manchester City Women were in second place with 38 points, third was Arsenal at 37 and closely behind was Reading at 32 and Birmingham City Ladies with 30.

Looking at the outcomes of

12th September 2016. By Edward Stratmann.
Everton's astute signing of Idrissa Gueye from Aston Villa for just £7.1 million, having activated his release clause, has undoubtedly been one of the signings of the season so far.

Although Aston Villa suffered the indignity of relegation, Gueye emerged as one of the Claret and Blue Army's shining lights in their season of darkness, with his reputation well and truly in tact. Joining Everton certainly served as a brilliant reward for all his tireless, battling work for Villa.

By the numbers, the former Lille man was exceptional last term. He successfully completed 4.1 tackles per game and a vital four interceptions pg, which remarkably placed him second in the league behind only N'Golo Kante in both metrics (as per Whoscored). Moreover, the fact he won over 53% of his aerial duels, completed 1869 passes at an impressive 85.6% completion rate and ran over 10kms a game suitably amplified his tremendous contribution.

New Everton manager, Ronald Koeman,

5th May 2016.
In December, Manchester United legend Gary Neville took on his first-ever head manager position at Valencia. On March 30^th, his tenure with the Spanish soccer squad came to an early and abrupt conclusion.

All told, Neville's dismissal from Valencia after a little less than four months in charge wasn't a surprise. The Bats have been in shambles for most of the season and Neville did little to put new wind behind the team's sails. At the time of his sacking, Neville's Valencia side had lost three La Liga games in a row, culminating in a 0-2 at-home defeat against Celta de Vigo.

The Win-Draw-Loss Record

Neville exits Valencia with the kind of unimpressive record that he will likely be trying to live down for several years to come. In total, he coached the Bats for 28 games. 10 of those ended in victory, seven in draws, and 11 in losses. Those numbers figure out to a 35.7% win percentage.

In the domestic league, however, Neville's average was worse. He failed to grab a victory

16th April 2016.
For whatever reason, this past weekend's games seemed to solidify the fate of the 2015/16 Premier League. For one thing, Leicester City, spurred on by a brace from likely PFA Player of the Year winner Jamie Vardy, started to look like clear Premier League champions. Seven points clear at the top of the table with five games to play, the Foxes aren't in the clear yet but haven't seen any major threats in awhile.

Perhaps more importantly, Leicester have now won five games in a row. They've got the momentum to finish out the season strong and win their first-ever Premier League title. At very least, Leicester's win against Sunderland over the weekend guarantees the club a spot in the 2016/17 Champions League-the first time the Foxes have ever qualified for the prestigious tournament.

Aston Villa's Losing Streak

Speaking of Premier League firsts, while Leicester City were enjoying their unofficial coronation as league champs over the weekend, the final nail might have been

Aston Villa players may or may not be playing in a different league next season, but they will most definitely be playing in a different kit. Coincidentally, as the club reels toward a potential relegation at the end of this current season, their four-year, £15 million kit manufacturing deal with Macron is coming to a close. And, if rumors are to be believed, the Lions are looking to a new brand for their next kit manufacturing deal: Under Armour.

The End of an Era

Macron has been designing and manufacturing Aston Villa's kits since 2012, and while the football club hasn't always performed well in that period, their jerseys have always been up to snuff. Macron has done a good job of keeping pace with modern soccer shirt trends while also retaining the classic claret-and-blue look that has always been Aston Villa's bread and butter.

Indeed, the Lions' kits tend to do reasonably well on lists ranking Premier League jerseys. Macron's Aston Villa home shirt 2015/16 was ranked seventh out of

A year ago, by the time the fifth round of the 2014/15 FA Cup rolled around, only three heavyweight Premier League clubs had survived the eliminations. Those three teams-Arsenal, Liverpool, and Manchester United-had managed to avoid an upset-ridden fourth round that had sent Chelsea, Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur, and Southampton (among others) packing. Arsenal went on to win the tournament, beating Aston Villa in the finals for a second consecutive FA Cup trophy.

This year, things could hardly be more different. Most of the football clubs to qualify for the round of 16 in the 2015/16 FA Cup are big names from the Premier League. The fourth round of the tournament-played this past weekend, in place of regular league competition-saw Arsenal, both Manchester teams, Chelsea, Everton, and Crystal Palace all earning spots in the final 16. Furthermore, most of those soccer clubs won big in their fourth round matches, paving the way for what should be a more competitive FA Cup battle than

The 2015/16 football campaign is barely half done at this point, and the English Premier League has already been a bloodbath in terms of management shakeups. Liverpool sacked Brendan Rodgers; Aston Villa fired Tim Sherwood; Sunderland dismissed Dick Advocaat; Meanwhile, other managers like Louis van Gaal (Manchester United) and Steve McClaren (Newcastle United) could very well not last until the end of the season in their current positions.

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A New Sacking Record

The Premier League's turnover rate has been modest compared to that of the Championship, too. Indeed, England's second professional football tier has sacked a combined total of 10 managers so far this season. In fact, according to the LMA (League Managers Association), the top four divisions of English soccer sacked 29 managers in the first half of the 2015/16 campaign.

Since there are 92 teams spread out across those four divisions, that means roughly a quarter of England's football clubs have fired

In 1992, Aston Villa earned the distinction of being one of the founding Premier League clubs. That first season, they finished second in the league, trailing 10 points behind Manchester United. It was a promising start to a new era for the Lions and promised good things to come for a team that had, up to that point, won seven top-flight English football titles.

Fast-forward nearly 25 years and Aston Villa still only have seven top-flight English football titles, having never gotten any closer to ruling the Premier League than they did in that rookie season. However, unlike many of their fellow teams from that founding Premier League class, the Claret and Blue have managed to avoid relegation completely. There have been some close calls, of course: in 1994, the Lions finished 18^th-only dodging relegation because the Premier League was a 22-team division at the time. Last season, they ended up at 17^th-just three points above the red zone. In fact, in each of the last four seasons, Aston

There were 11 draws in the third round of the 2015/16 FA Cup, which means that the majority of the match-ups for the fourth round of the tournament won't be completely decided until we get to the third-round replays scheduled for January 19^th and 20^th. Despite the lack of complete information, though, the Football Association announced the draw for the tournament's fourth round on Monday, January 11^th, giving fans a general idea of who their favorite soccer clubs will be competing with at the end of the month.

All 16 fourth round matches are currently scheduled for the weekend of January 30^th. Read on for a quick run-through of that weekend's biggest must-watch fixtures!

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The Key Matchups

There may be 32 football clubs left in the running for the 2015/16 FA Cup, but the number of teams that (probably) have a chance of winning the tournament is a much shorter list. Arsenal have to be considered the frontrunners, fresh as they are off two back-to-back victories in

Most of the Premier League's top football clubs sailed through the third round of the 2015/16 FA Cup easily over the weekend, with Manchester City, Arsenal, Man United, Chelsea, West Ham United, and others all cruising through to the fourth round of the Football Association tournament. Read on for a recap of the winners and losers of the weekend!

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The Winners

As usual, the Premier League's soccer teams got a bye into the third round, which means this is the first time in the 2015/16 FA Cup that we are seeing teams such as Man United, Arsenal, and others. Since so many of the league's top clubs were upset and eliminated in the fourth round of last year's FA Cup-including Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur, and Chelsea-most of the Premier League's best teams are playing FA Cup football for the first time in nearly a full calendar year.

We'll have to wait and see what round four brings, but round three saw the Premier League's teams mostly avoiding upsets. The Sky Blues