Unai Emery must change his Aston Villa XI for Arsenal.placeholder image
Unai Emery must change his Aston Villa XI for Arsenal. | AFP via Getty Images
Unai Emery faces a team selection conundrum when facing Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium next week.
Arsenal will face an Aston Villa side buoyed by an impressive comeback against Chelsea when the two sides meet at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday night.
Unai Emery’s side went 1-0 down at Stamford Bridge but an Ollie Watkins brace from the bench ensured that the Midlands outfit left the capital with all three points. Aston Villa sit in third place, three points behind the Gunners, ahead of the huge clash next week.
Mikel Arteta could once again be without key players in Riccardo Calafiori and Jurrien Timber, who both missed out of the 2-1 win over Brighton. The likes of Max Dowman and Cristhian Mosquera are also set to miss out again.
Aston Villa see two players suspended for Arsenal
Arsenal are, however, boosted by news that Aston Villa will be without two key first team stars when they arrive at the Emirates. Matty Cash and Boubacar Kamara both picked up their fifth yellow cards of the campaign, which results in a one match suspension.
Both players are regular started for Unai Emery and will leave the Villains boss with a selection headache. Reacting to the suspensions on Sky Sports, former Tottenham Hotspur star Jamie Redknapp said: “It’s going to be interesting to see what he does because there’s no [Tyrone] Mings or Pau Torres for the near future. Kamara is probably the easier one to deal with, in other games Lindelof has gone to play right back, if you had Torres that might be fine.
“Otherwise the right-back situation is a difficult one, Arsenal are fantastic in those wide areas. Whoever he decides to play there - he always gets every decision right - he’ll find a way. Whoever plays right-back will have to come in and do a great job. Matty Cash has been in such good form of late, they will really miss him.
“I don’t see Kamara as a major problem, maybe John McGinn comes in, but right-back will certainly be one he has his thinking cap on about with his team, looking at whoever the left winger is of Arsenal, how we can nullify them and stop any problems.”
Ollie Watkins on Aston Villa title charge
An Aston Villa win on Tuesday night would pull them level on points with Arsenal as Emery’s men become surprise contenders to be involved in a title race against the Gunners and Manchester City.
After scoring his brace, Watkins was asked about his team’s ambitions and said: “I feel like teams are worried about us, thinking ‘ah, we’ve got Villa next’. Even if we may not play the prettiest football at times because we are sat behind the ball and just defending but they know we are going to eventually cause them problems when we do string a few passes together and grow into the game.
“We’re taking each game as it comes and just focusing on ourselves. There’s a lot of talk about us and people asking the question about winning the title but that’s a long way away and we are focusing on the next game.”
In other news, 'Free Header': Ollie Watkins thanks Chelsea star for Aston Villa winner as Jamie Redknapp slams defender/
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