Aston Villa travel to face Brentford in the Premier League on Saturday evening, and here’s how Unai Emery’s starting line-up could look.
Villa have struggled all season with a busy schedule, as our results following a European game haven’t been positive throughout the campaign.
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While we secured a brilliant 3-1 win over Club Brugge in the Champions League in midweek to put ourselves in a commanding position ahead of the second leg of our round-of-16 tie, we’ve got ground to make up in the Premier League if we wish to be back at Europe’s top table next season.
In turn, we can’t afford to continue to drop points, but a road trip to Brentford is going to be a complicated task, and we’ll undoubtedly have to be at our best if we are to return home with all three points.
No Barkley, Onana, but Emery receives positive boosts in midweek
Emery ruled out Ross Barkley in his pre-match press conference, while he noted that Amadou Onana is closing in on a return, albeit it sounded unlikely that he will make it back in time for this encounter having just returned to group training.
In contrast, there was great news in midweek as Matty Cash and Boubacar Kamara got minutes after their respective injury setbacks, while Pau Torres was named among the substitutes after his lengthy layoff.
The Villa squad is starting to grow stronger as key individuals return, and that should ultimately result in another strong bench this weekend to give us alternative tactical options and solutions.
Emiliano Martinez will continue in goal, but after being unavailable in Bruges, Andres Garcia could return at right-back, allowing Ezri Konsa and Tyrone Mings to re-form their centre-half partnership, with Lucas Digne operating on the opposite side.
While Kamara will likely be gradually reintegrated into the starting line-up, John McGinn and Youri Tielemans should continue in our midfield pivot, while Leon Bailey may well be given the opportunity to build on his goal earlier this week as he looks to rediscover his best form to end the season.
Morgan Rogers will be expected to continue through the middle, with Jacob Ramsey perhaps coming in for Marcus Rashford on the left side, having dropped to the bench in midweek.
It seems the more likely outcome that Ollie Watkins will continue to lead the Villa line, but Emery does have Donyell Malen at his disposal again if he wishes to make a change up top, while Marco Asensio will no doubt be pushing for a starting berth too.
It’s a real boost to have so many top-level options across the squad now facing competition for a starting spot, and ultimately it now falls on Emery to make the most of that, get the balance right and put us in a position to win this game with the right personnel on the pitch to make the difference.
Predicted Aston Villa XI vs Brentford: Martinez; Garcia, Konsa, Mings, Digne; McGinn, Tielemans; Bailey, Rogers, Ramsey; Watkins.