Aston Villa face Chelsea this weekend and Unai Emery will be without both Matty Cash and Philippe Coutinho for the encounter at Stamford Bridge.
A win would see Villa move up into the top half of the Premier League table, but despite their struggles so far this season, Chelsea will undoubtedly be a difficult assignment on Saturday given the quality in their squad.
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Emery would have been hoping to get through the international break without any fresh injury setbacks, but unfortunately there is one as confirmed by the club, with Cash set to be sidelined for between two to three weeks after sustaining a calf issue while in action for Poland last week.
It’s added that Coutinho is also unavailable as he continues his recovery from an injury setback, which will now see him miss a fifth consecutive game.
However, there was good news too as Villa confirmed that Boubacar Kamara has returned to group training this week, and he will be assessed on Friday to determine whether or not he can be named in the squad for the Chelsea clash.
While it’s hoped that the French international comes through unscathed and is ready to return, the expectation is that he will only be fit enough for the bench, but it will be a significant boost to have him back available regardless.
Further, Leander Dendoncker is also at Emery’s disposal this weekend after recovering from a hand injury, albeit it’s noted in the club’s tweet that he has been involved in group training for the past two weeks.
That gives the Villa boss another important option and depth in midfield if needed, but the likelihood is that John McGinn and Douglas Luiz will continue in the middle, while it remains to be seen if Emery opts to make further changes elsewhere besides the only forced switch with Ashley Young likely to come in to replace Cash.
Beyond that, he’ll surely want to avoid making too many tweaks to a winning side that is in good form, and so we’ll hopefully return from the capital with three points to continue our strong finish to the campaign.
Unai Emery on team news:
“Cash is injured and he is going to be out for a couple of weeks, maybe more, hopefully less than three weeks,” he told the media, as per VillaTV. “But more or less, this injury, going normally for the player, is three weeks. Still injured is Coutinho, he’s progressing but is not yet ready to train with us.
“Kamara, this week, was training with us. If tomorrow he is ready, he is training normal, I think we can use him in the squad for the match on Saturday.
“Dendoncker as well has trained with us for the last two weeks normally, he is ready to play.
