Schedule change benefits Aston Villa for FA Cup | OneFootball

Oftentimes, clubs like Aston Villa are at the mercy of the schedule makers. A change can happen, and suddenly a quick turnaround is expected that objectively hurts the chances of a side looking to compete across all competitions.

In the case of the latest news, however, the most recent development actually benefits Villa. The later April fixture against Manchester City has been moved from Wednesday to Tuesday of the planned week and will now take place on the 22nd, as reported by Matt Maher of the Express & Star on X.

This switch helps Unai Emery in his FA Cup preparations, as that semi-final game will take place that weekend. At this time, it's still undetermined if it will be on Saturday or Sunday. Either way, it gives an extra day for AVFC compared to their Crystal Palace opponents. Arsenal will face Palace on Wednesday still and could potentially only have three days to recover from their Premier League match to prepare for the tournament encounter.

Granted, if the flip side were true, the fewer days to prepare would not be a valid excuse to use in the case of a loss. Objectively speaking, for now, having an extra day is certain to help Emery. At the end of this month, during that week, the legs will greatly benefit from having the extra 24 hours for the big match.

Winning in the Premier League is important, but most agree that winning at Wembley is absolutely essential. Gaining an extra day to focus on Palace and potentially giving a little extra time for someone working through an injury could prove to be the difference in their quest for a trophy.

For a club that often has seemingly everything working against it, getting a break from this scheduling change is a nice, welcome change for once. More importantly, giving Emery a bonus day of prep time in a must-win Aston Villa matchup could end up spelling doom for Palace later on.