Aside from the delight of our win at Club Brugge in midweek, Aston Villa boss Unai Emery also received important injury boosts as our squad continues to be strengthened.
Villa will look to finish the job in the second leg next week and book our place in the Champions League quarter-finals, while we’ll hope to secure a spot in the FA Cup semi-finals later this month too.
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Combined with our ongoing push to land a European qualification spot in the Premier League, there is a lot to play for between now and May.
What would certainly help our cause of trying to achieve our objectives is having as healthy a squad as possible, and with our never-ending injury list in recent months, that has felt a long way off.
Fortunately, there were positive developments this week with both Boubacar Kamara and Matty Cash getting valuable minutes off the bench in Belgium as they made their respective comebacks from injury setbacks, while Pau Torres was named among the substitutes.
Although we’re still missing Ross Barkley and Amadou Onana, it’s hoped that the midfield duo aren’t far off from making a return either, and that will ultimately give Emery more important options to not only rotate and rest key individuals, but to have alternative tactical solutions at his disposal too for different challenges and opposition.
While we’ve yet to solve the riddle that is defensive solidity on a consistent basis this season, the hope is that players with the influence of Torres and Kamara in particular will help address that concern in the coming weeks, while we’ll take strain off those who have had a heavy workload during their respective absences.
That duo specifically add class and composure in possession too, and so particularly in Europe, those are valuable traits to have as we look to manage and control games as effectively as possible.
Our fixture schedule certainly won’t ease off if we continue to advance in these competitions, and so it’s imperative that we get everyone back fit and avoid further setbacks in the weeks ahead to have the best possible chance of doing something special this season.
For now though, we can take heart and reassurance from seeing three key figures return to the fold, and hopefully that in itself will help make a significant difference to both our performances and results as we look to find a balance between a more robust defensive unit and a clinical attack to try and win silverware and secure our place at Europe’s top table again next year.
