Aston Villa's season was petering away. Boxing Day's defeat at Newcastle United meant Unai Emery's side had already lost six times in their opening 18 games - one third of their matches - and had dropped to ninth in the Premier League standings. They were also out of the Carabao Cup before their FA Cup campaign had a chance to begin.
The saving grace for Villa had been their excellent European run, making a splash on their return to the Champions League. By the end of eight rounds of the new league phase, they had secured automatic qualification to the knockout stages, triumphing where the likes of Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Manchester City had failed.
Their last league phase victory, a 4-2 win at home to Celtic, was overshadowed by the uncertain futures of their two main outlet for goals in Ollie Watkins and Jhon Duran. The former was the subject of a shock, if almost derisory, £45m bid from boyhood club Arsenal, but Villa had no interest in selling up. They were, however, willing to move Duran on to Al-Nassr, whose star players include Cristiano Ronaldo, for a fee of around £70m.
That sort of money was too good to turn down, though it did leave Villa with only a few days left of the winter transfer window to not only secure a replacement, but ultimately strengthen a squad which needed reinforcing in the first place. The recruitment team's efforts led them down the paths of out-of-favour Paris Saint-Germain forward Marco Asensio and want-away Manchester United attacker Marcus Rashford, both eventually signing on initial loans until the end of the season.
They often say 'never fall in love with a loan player', but the Holte End can't help it. The duo look totally reinvigorated in claret and blue. How opportune and ironic that their next task will be downing PSG, who seem to have finally got their act together in the Champions League after a decade of incompetence.
