With the Premier League season just around the corner, less than a week to be precise, pre-season schedules are slowly coming to a close at teams look to put the final touches on their preparation for the new campaign.

For Aston Villa this has been no different, with six friendly games, all played in Europe, making up their pre-season fixture list. Aside from that there's been arrivals, departures and staff changes, so let's take a look back at Villa's last six weeks.

A new beginning and a trip to Portugal

Villa returned to training in early July and immediately flew out to Portugal for two friendly games against Championship side Fulham, and Sporting Braga.

They took a whole host of players with them, and two new faces. Scott Sinclair was snapped up for £2.5million after a successful loan spell from Manchester City last season, and Micah Richards completed his move on a free.

Both were immediately thrust into playing action, and were part of a disappointing couple of games where they didn't win.

Libor Kozak netted in the first game, a 3-1 loss to Fulham, before the spoils were shared in the second as Villa and Braga played out a dull 0-0 draw.

During the tour, there were another two signings completed, in goalkeeper Mark Bunn and midfielder Idrissa Gueye. Bunn was brought in on a free from Norwich, whilst Gueye signified the first real spending of the window after a £9million move from LOSC Lille.

Back to England with big arrivals and departures

Upon returning to England, Villa had some big departures to contend with. Club captain Fabian Delph was off to City after a huge u-turn over his future, whilst Christian Benteke completed his long awaited move to Liverpool.

Despite raking in £40million to the club's coffers, they left the fans in doubt over the teams future, and transfers were needed to sort the situation out.

  • Tim Sherwood didn't waste any time, and the next few weeks saw three Jordan's, for a combined fee of over £25million. Amavi, Ayew and Veretout came in from Nice, Lorient and Nantes respectively.          

There were also deals done for non Ligue 1 players, as Juan Angel Crespo and Rudy Gestede were brought in, taking the overall spending to £45million by August.

Local derbies galore to wrap up pre-season

Seemingly determined not to venture too far from Villa Park after their Portugese exploits, Villa's next, and final, four fixtures in pre-season saw them play games fairly close to home.

The furthest they travelled came in their first game back, but it was worth it as goals from Jerell Sellar's and Gabriel Agbonlahor helped them to a 2-0 victory over Swindon Town.

Another young striker was on the scoresheet in the next game, with Callum Robinson striking against Walsall, but he couldn't win the game for them, as it finished 1-1.

Kozak impressed yet again in the next match as he continued his return from a long injury layoff, but again there was no win for Villa. His two goals had twice put them ahead against Wolverhampton Wanderers, but Wolves twice pegged them back to draw 2-2.

The final match? You guessed it, another draw- and another entertaining one. A topsy turvy game against Nottingham Forest ended in a 3-3 tie, as Sinclair showed the Villa fans why he deserved to be signed permanently, scoring a hat-trick.

What can be taken from it?

Many will tell you that there is little to be learnt from pre-season matches, and they're little than 90 minute fitness tests ahead of the new season. They may be right, but these so called 'fitness tests' have given Villa fans reasons to be positive going into the opening game.

They've only lost once in six games, and that was with their least senior starting 11, and they've been amongst the goals. Callum Robinson, Jerell Sellars, Gabby Agbonlahor, Libor Kozak and Scott Sinclair have all impressed in front of the net, which is a relief after the loss of Christian Benteke.

The statement of intent by the club's higher powers to spend big, and get the deals done quickly has also been promising, and there's much confidence to be had.