Sunderland will visit Premier League rivals Aston Villa on Sunday afternoon.
Unai Emery has warned Aston Villa they still have work to do in their bid for success as he awaits news on the fitness of two players ahead of Sunday’s home clash with Sunderland.
Emery’s men are firmly in the race for a Champions League place and are sitting in fourth place in the Premier League table ahead of this weekend’s fixtures. Progress has also been secured in the Europa League as Villa claimed a comfortable home win against Serie A club Bologna on Thursday night to complete a 7-1 aggregate victory and set up a semi-final clash with league rivals Nottingham Forest.
Despite being ruled out of last weekend’s 1-1 league draw with Forest, Emery was able to name Argentina international goalkeeper Emi Martinez in his starting line-up for Thursday’s win and the former Arsenal stopper is expected to be assessed before a final decision is made over his involvement against the Black Cats. Winger Jadon Sancho also returned as he came off the bench to replace Morgan Rogers during the final quarter of an hour and his shoulder injury will also be monitored. Brazilian prospect Alysson will miss Sunday’s game and will focus his attention on being in contention for next weekend’s visit to Fulham but Boubacar Kamara will definitely miss the game against Sunderland and will not feature again this season after suffering a serious knee injury that has brought a premature end to his campaign.
Emery could consider rotating his squad after what has been a hectic week and may opt to freshen up his starting eleven in a bid to cope with what has been a hectic period since the final international break of the season. With so much to play for during the remainder of the campaign, Emery has stressed his players must feed off the energy and momentum of their European exploits and insisted they can’t underestimate how much work they still have to do over the next month as they chase success of two separate fronts.
Energy
John McGinn starred as Aston Villa made it through to the semi-finals of the Europa League.placeholder image
John McGinn starred as Aston Villa made it through to the semi-finals of the Europa League. | Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images.
He told the club website: “It’s fantastic, but there’s still work to do. How we enjoyed it today with our supporters and the atmosphere they created here is really fantastic. The atmosphere was helping, with them being with us, feeling with us everything we were doing. They were transmitting their energy and we were transmitting our energy as well, respecting the competition, respecting Bologna.
“We beat them and now we must be happy with everything we are doing, but there’s still work to do and matches to play. The priority is still the Premier League. We are fourth and we are playing on Sunday against Sunderland. A semi-final is something we must be proud of. How we got it two years ago in the Conference League, how we played last year in the quarter-final of the Champions League, and this year a semi-final of Europa League, I’m happy. I’m keeping balance because we must carry on being very demanding and achieving our consistency.”
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