Aston Villa face Liverpool on Monday night in the Premier League, and Unai Emery has named his starting line-up for the encounter.
A win against the Reds would secure fourth place and subsequently a spot in the Champions League next season, and so a depleted Villa squad know exactly how big the stakes are in our last home game of the campaign.
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Injuries and fatigue have been a real concern in recent weeks as our stuttering form has seen us limp to the finish line, while there was disappointment last week as our Europa Conference League run came to an end at the semi-finals stage.
It’s hoped that we have one last big shift left in us to get three points against Liverpool though, removing the need to rely on results elsewhere to help us achieve our objective.
In order to have the best possible chance of doing exactly that, Emery would have been hoping for good news on the injury front given we’ve been dealing with a lengthy absentee list for some time now.
As per the club’s tweet below, there was an important bit of good news as Youri Tielemans returns to the starting XI after missing our last three games due to injury, while Nicolo Zaniolo bolsters our bench and gives us an important option if needed to try and change the game.
There is no Matty Cash though and so it remains to be seen if he has suffered an injury setback of his own, but it’s as strong a Villa line-up as we could have hoped for as we go in search of a pivotal win that will hopefully end the race for fourth place.
Representing Aston Villa tonight! 👊 pic.twitter.com/PuqtMLuhva
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) May 13, 2024
