Aston Villa are busy preparing for our Premier League clash with Bournemouth this week, and Unai Emery has seemingly been handed a fitness boost ahead of the encounter.
Villa secured a 2-0 win over Bologna in the Champions League on Tuesday night as we continued our brilliant start in Europe, but there was concern after midfielder Amadou Onana was replaced at half-time.
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Speaking after the game, Emery confirmed that it was a combination of both a tactical decision and due to the fact that the Belgian international was feeling some pain, and so there was an anxious wait to determine whether or not he would be a doubt to face the Cherries on Saturday.
“Tactical decision but as well he had some pain,” he told TNT Sports, as per BBC Sport. “Not clear. I decided tactically and also not take a risk with him.”
Fortunately, as seen in the video below from training on Thursday, Onana was amongst his teammates in the group session and that hopefully indicates that he will fine to feature this weekend and allow Emery to stick with our influential midfield pivot of Onana and Youri Tielemans.
The Belgian pair have been crucial to how we’ve played so far this season by setting the tone and tempo in the middle of the pitch, and with their ability to complement each other so well to provide us with tenacity, athleticism, technical ability and composure, it gives us all-important control in games, both in and out of possession.
While we have Ross Barkley pushing for a starting berth and Boubacar Kamara returned from injury in midweek, that appears to be the first-choice pairing for the time being, and so it was good to see Onana involved and not nursing a possible injury that would have put his participation in doubt.
Naturally, we’ll have to wait until Emery’s pre-match press conference on Friday for confirmation that Onana isn’t carrying a knock and in turn will be available, but the signs are positive for now, and we’ll see if the Villa boss goes with as strong a starting XI as possible and intends to rotate and rest key individuals for our Carabao Cup clash with Crystal Palace next week instead.
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⚽️ ⬅️ pic.twitter.com/1tUPK6gG3Q— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) October 24, 2024