Unai Emery
Aston Villa secured a 2-0 win over West Ham United in the Premier League on Sunday. The result at Villa Park saw the Villans end their five-match winless streak, which includes four defeats.
Unai Emery left Victor Lindelöf out of the squad in Aston Villa’s latest win and that causes concern in Sweden.
The national team boss, Graham Potter, has the centre-back in his squad for the World Cup qualifier against Ukraine on Thursday.
He ended his eight-year spell at Manchester United and left them as a free agent last summer.
The Sweden international waited until September to join Aston Villa on a free transfer and played 1,272 minutes from 21 matches. Below are his stats per game from the Premier League for the Villa Park club.
|Premier League 2025/26||
|---|
|Interceptions|0.3|
|Tackles|0.3|
|Ball recovery|1.1|
|Duels won|1|
|Clearances|2|
|Blocked shots|0.3|
Lack of Aston Villa clarity worries Sweden
Last Thursday, the 31-year-old played the full 90 minutes in Aston Villa’s 2-0 Europa League win over Lille. Fotbollskanalen looks at his omission against West Ham and cover the latest.
On September 16th, 2025, Unai Emery left the defender out of the squad in the EFL Cup loss to Brentford. Since then, the manager has included Victor Lindelöf in the squad in every fixture until yesterday.
The Spaniard or the Birmingham club haven’t given an explanation for his absence from the squad. Therefore, the outlet say his latest omission is ‘unusual’.
Another Swedish source, Aftonbladet, say Emery’s decision to leave Lindelöf out of the squad concerns Sweden. This is mainly because of a lack of communication from Aston Villa over the player’s absence.
As of now, it’s unclear whether Emery’s decision was from a tactical point of view or due to fitness/injury concern.
Either way, the national team are worried about Lindelöf’s fitness, ahead of the crucial World Cup qualifier on March 26th. The Lindelöf situation should be clarified in the next few hours.
Aston Villa player has point to prove
Victor Lindelof
Last October, Jon Dahl Tomasson became the first manager to be sacked by Sweden and was replaced by Potter. Their poor run under the Dane convinced them to take this step.
After their defeat to Kosovo in October, national team fans were critical of the players. Victor Lindelöf gave a sarcastic thumbs up to supporters who booed him and his teammates, and a month later, issued a half apology to them.
Therefore, the Aston Villa man [if he’s fit] and other Sweden players have a point to prove against Ukraine later this week.
Lindelöf’s contract lasts until 2027, with an option for another year, and Transfermarkt value him at €6m.
🇮🇹 Marcus Thuram | Newcastle United and Aston Villa initiate contact ➡️ Entourage now in transfer mixhttps://t.co/BBPaGSTspg #nufc #avfc
— Sport Witness (@Sport_Witness) March 20, 2026