Aston Villa face Brentford in the Premier League on Saturday, and Unai Emery has named his starting line-up for the clash.
Despite the early-season concerns for the hosts and our decent record against them in recent times, this promises to be a difficult test for Villa, and so we’ll have to be at our best on the road to return home with all three points.
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It was a boost to see us keep a clean sheet last week, especially having been reduced to 10 men in the second half against Newcastle United, and we’ll certainly need more of that defensive steeliness this weekend to give ourselves a solid foundation to get the desired result.
Ezri Konsa misses out due to suspension while neither Andres Garcia nor Ross Barkley have recovered to feature after injury setbacks, and so we knew that Emery would be forced into at least one change this weekend.
As per the club’s post below, Emiliano Martinez returns from a suspension of his own to replace Marco Bizot between the posts, while Pau Torres comes in for Konsa, as we’ll him partner Tyrone Mings for the first time in the heart of the Villa backline.
It will be interesting to see how that duo work given the obvious question marks over a potential imbalance being two left-footed centre-halves, but hopefully they’ll dominate from a defensive perspective while giving us composure in possession to build out from the back.
Emery opts to stick with Youri Tielemans in a more advanced role which didn’t work particularly well last weekend, and so it’s hoped that proves to be more effective this time round, but it’s certainly a strong Villa bench if needed, with the likes of Emiliano Buendia, Donyell Malen and Evann Guessand on hand if we’re chasing the game in the latter stages or in need of a breakthrough.
Youngsters Sam Proctor, Triston Rowe and Bradley-Paul Burrowes are all included too which is great to see, albeit it also perhaps highlights the need for Villa to bring in reinforcements before the transfer deadline to ensure we have enough experienced options in the group.
Your Villa side to take on Brentford today ⚫️#BREAVL pic.twitter.com/OY5woFxYLv
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) August 23, 2025
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