✨ Explore this must-read post from BBC Sport 📖
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📌 Main takeaway:
Fans of Premier League clubs will have found out that their team will be playing a club they have already faced this season in midweek.
Halfway through the campaign, each team will still have one opponent they have yet to meet.
Aston Villa faces league leaders Arsenal for the second time in the first half of the season, although it has not yet faced Nottingham Forest.
It’s something that has baffled Villa manager Unai Emery.
He said: “It is the first time in my career as a coach, after 20 years, that we finish the first part of the season without playing 19 teams.”
“I don’t know why. I’m just saying that because it’s the only issue on my mind that I don’t understand. But, of course, I accept it.”
Damian Vidagani, Aston Villa’s director of football, suggested there was bias in scheduling the matches and described it as a “puzzle”.
He said in a post on the
“I’ll let you take a look at the clubs that will be playing at home in the last and next game. Having us play two away games in less than 72 hours would never be an excuse, but we agree that this is much better in terms of recovery.” [to] Play twice at home and don’t travel.
He added: “Certainly, as is clear, we have no influence. It would be a shame if the matches became a political area.”
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