Aston Villa travel to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea in the Premier League this weekend, and here’s how Unai Emery’s starting line-up could look for the clash.
Villa picked up a point in the Champions League in midweek as we were held to a goalless draw by Juventus, but there were some encouraging signs in that game as we look to end our current seven-game winless streak across all competitions.
READ MORE: Five key talking points as Villa show much-needed solidity in draw vs Juventus
It certainly won’t be a straight-forward task on Sunday as we visit an in-form Chelsea side who have started the season well under Enzo Maresca, and so this will be a difficult challenge for Emery and the players as we hope to return home with all three points.
As per his pre-match press conference on Friday, the Villa boss confirmed that Jacob Ramsey remains sidelined by injury, but Amadou Onana will undergo a late fitness test to determine his availability.
Konsa boost in defence, rotation to be saved for midweek?
With Emiliano Martinez continuing in between the posts, there could be one key change in defence with Ezri Konsa returning to the bench in midweek after recovering from his own injury setback.
It’s hoped that the Villa centre-half is sufficiently healthy to start now, and thus restores our preferred partnership in the middle alongside Pau Torres, with Matty Cash and Lucas Digne likely to start in the full-back roles.
With a question mark lingering over Onana, Boubacar Kamara should continue with Youri Tielemans in the midfield pivot as his presence is so important for us with the defensive solidity and structure that he adds, while we could see Leon Bailey, John McGinn and Morgan Rogers continue to provide support behind Ollie Watkins in the attacking third.
Emery does face important decisions in some key positions as with Brentford and Southampton to follow on Wednesday and Saturday respectively, he’ll likely have to rotate to keep everyone fit and to help fend off the threat of further injuries, so will that come this weekend, or will he make more prominent changes in our following fixtures?
The expectation is that we’ll go as strong as possible for this fixture, and so the likes of Ian Maatsen, Ross Barkley, Jaden Philogene and Jhon Duran may well have to wait for the Brentford clash to get a look in for the starting line-up.
Ultimately though, it will come down to Emery and which personnel he believes gives us the best possible chance of beating Chelsea, and the Villa XI below feels as though it’s the strongest possible team we can put out right now, and hopefully it’s capable of getting the job done and ending our winless run.
Predicted Aston Villa XI vs Chelsea: Martinez; Cash, Konsa, Pau, Digne; Kamara, Tielemans; Bailey, McGinn, Rogers; Watkins.
❌ Jacob Ramsey
❓ Amadou Onana
Konsa hopefully fit enough to start after making bench in midweek. Busy week ahead, could likes of Maatsen, Barkley & Philogene come into contention for this one, or will we go with strongest XI & possibly rotate in the week?#avfc #UTV 🟣🔵 pic.twitter.com/QqBXSfviiT
— Talk Villa (@thetalkvilla) November 29, 2024