Aston Villa face Manchester City in the Premier League on Sunday, and Unai Emery has named his starting line-up for the encounter.
A disappointing defeat at Go Ahead Eagles in the Europa League in midweek ended our winning streak last time out, and so it’s hoped that there is a positive reaction from Villa in what will be a difficult assignment against Pep Guardiola’s side.
Youri Tielemans remains sidelined, but Emery has been boosted by the return of key individuals from injury in recent games, and so we’re hopefully in a good place moving forward in terms of squad depth and alternative solutions.
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After making multiple changes in the Netherlands on Thursday night, the Villa boss was expected to do the same for this contest, and as per the club’s post below, we’ve made five changes for this clash, with Matty Cash, Lucas Digne, Boubacar Kamara, John McGinn and Morgan Rogers coming in to replace Victor Lindelof, Ian Maatsen, Lamare Bogarde, Evann Guessand and Jadon Sancho respectively.
Notably, there is no Harvey Elliott in the matchday squad as we await an update on whether or not that is injury related or if he continues to gradually go through the adaptation process with Emery, but it will be disappointing for him not to be involved this weekend.
Nevertheless, it’s a strong Villa XI with defensively solidity to hopefully impose ourselves effectively in the game, and with quality in attack and on the bench if needed, there will be confidence in getting a positive result against Man City and getting back on track immediately after disappointment in our last outing.
Villa have a good record against Guardiola’s men in recent meetings at home, and although it continues to be a tough challenge given the quality at his disposal across the pitch, we’re hopefully able to keep that run going on Sunday.
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