Aston Villa face Brentford in the Premier League this weekend, and Unai Emery has provided our latest team news ahead of the encounter.
Villa secured a crucial win away at Club Brugge in the Champions League in midweek to put ourselves in a strong position ahead of the second leg of our round-of-16 tie.
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While that particular job isn’t yet done and we’ll need to produce another big performance next week, focus switches back to domestic matters on Saturday evening as we look to avoid following a familiar trend of struggling in the Premier League after a European game.
It certainly won’t be easy to do that on the road against Brentford in what promises to be a difficult test, but Emery will hope that the boost of getting key individuals back from injury will help our cause.
Both Matty Cash and Boubacar Kamara made their respective comebacks on Tuesday evening, while Pau Torres was named on the bench after a lengthy injury layoff.
Although neither Ross Barkley nor Amadou Onana are set to feature this weekend, it’s hoped that we have the numbers to potentially rotate and keep everyone as healthy as possible moving forward.
“Progressively, we are adding the players who have been injured,” he said, as per VillaTV. “They are getting close to playing more minutes.
“We anticipated Kamara’s comeback because we needed him, but we were trying to protect him, not in the starting XI and playing minutes.
“With Pau Torres the same, Cash the same, protecting them. But, of course, they played some minutes – Kamara and Cash – and they are closer to playing more. But we have to be intelligent with every player. With Pau Torres, the same.
“Barkley is out, not available for tomorrow, Onana is starting to work with the team and is close to being with us as well.
“Of course, we will need those players recovering after they’re injured and, hopefully, trying to keep being consistent better and not getting injured.”
It seems unlikely that Emery will rush Torres, Cash or Kamara back into the starting line-up, and particularly with Andres Garcia and Donyell Malen available again after missing out in midweek due to not being included in our Champions League squad, that duo should be fresh and ready to come in and make an impact.
Nevertheless, the Villa boss will still have selection headaches given the quality and depth at his disposal across the pitch, and it’s imperative that he gets our balance and combinations right to ensure that we have the best possible chance of starting the game well, and subsequently going on to secure all three points.
While we remain in the hunt for silverware in other competitions, things are becoming increasingly tight in the top half of the Premier League table in the battle for European qualification spots, and so we can ill-afford to drop more points this weekend.
