Aston Villa discover plans for beginning of 2020-21 season - reports

Aston Villa are still fighting to remain in the top flight, as things stand

The Premier League are set to tell their participating clubs that they intend to begin the new season by the middle of September at a meeting scheduled for Thursday.

Aston Villa are back in group training at Bodymoor Heath as they prepare for the resumption of their relegation fight on the pitch in the near future; the chances of that happening increased this week after the top flight confirmed that full contact training among players can get going again.

There remains hope that the current campaign, suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic, can be completed safely in the next couple of months, with phase one of Project Restart largely deemed a success.

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There have, though, still been some positive cases of Covid discovered during various rounds of testing - Bournemouth goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale and Watford defender Adrian Mariappa have been among them.

Should there be another spike in positive cases, it could curtail the league’s plans to complete the remaining fixtures - but they’re still set to inform clubs that the 2020-21 campaign will go ahead on time, irrespective if this season is able to be finished or not.

According to the Daily Mail, the league are aiming for the new kick off on the weekend of September 12-13.

Villa, who like many other clubs at the bottom of the Premier League and the top of the Championship don’t know as things stand which division they’ll be in for the new term, currently sit down in 19th but a victory in their game in hand against Sheffield United would lift them out of the relegation zone.

Should the season not be completed because of Covid, then clubs will be asked to approve the remainder of the campaign being determined by a points per game average.