We simulated Aston Villa's season after successful January transfer window

Aston Villa will be looking to push into the top half of the table and end the season in good form after making a handful of new signings in the January transfer window.

In Steven Gerrard's first transfer window as Villa boss, the former Liverpool player saw five new players to his ranks, with the standout trio being Lucas Digne, Calum Chambers and Phillipe Coutinho, the latter on a loan deal from Barcelona.

Back-up 'keeper Jed Steer departed for Luton Town in the first month of the new year with a new number two singed in Robin Olsen, whilst youngster Kerr Smith joined from Dundee United.

Currently sat in 11th place, the Villans entered the international break on the back of a 1-0 win against Everton, with the next three fixtures coming against teams in the bottom six of the table.

So, what could happen in the remainder of the 2021/22 Premier League season for Gerrard's side?

Could the new additions help Villa finish in the top half of the table, or even push for a European spot?

Let’s see what happened!

To simulate the remainder of the season, we used the Football Manager 2022 editor to update all teams, managers and playing squads of all Premier League teams. We then simulated from the end of the January transfer window in-game until the end of the 2021/22 season.

We used the Football Manager 2022 editor to replicate the current Premier League table as it is in real life, with the correct results for every fixture so far in the 2021/22 season. All in-game statistics shown from our simulated season are taken between February 1st, 2021 to May 31st, 2021.

Emiliano Buendia had the best player rating in the Villa squad, averaging a rating of 7.32 per game.

His Argentinian counterpart Emiliano Martinez had the