Aston Villa forward Evann Guessand has been called up to the Ivory Coast squad for AFCON and will now miss our upcoming fixtures.
The 24-year-old joined us from Nice this past summer and although he has contributed just two goals in 18 appearances in what has been a slow start to life at the club, he has emerged and established himself as an important option for Unai Emery.
With Villa pushing for success across multiple fronts, we need to rotate and keep everyone fresh, but unfortunately, we’ll now potentially be without Guessand deep into January.
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As per Sky Sports, he has been called up by Ivory Coast for AFCON, as he has replaced Sebastian Haller after he picked up an injury.
With the final of the competition set for January 18, it remains to be seen how far they advance, but naturally, we’ll now miss having that depth on the bench with a busy fixture schedule ahead of us in the coming weeks.
That in turn will likely mean that Emery will lean more heavily on Emiliano Buendia, Donyell Malen and Jadon Sancho to provide us with creativity and quality in the final third, while it remains to be seen how active we are in the January transfer window to bolster the squad.
As noted above, Guessand has had a difficult start in his adaptation at Villa as he has struggled to offer consistent quality in the final third, but he has earned the trust and belief of Emery to earn regular playing time, particularly in Europe.
With that in mind, the Villa boss will likely miss his presence in the squad moving forward, and coupled with injuries elsewhere and others perhaps lacking form too, it will be a test for those who have been performing so well over the past few months to maintain their form in another difficult stretch of the campaign.