Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has suggested that we should get an injury boost in midfield when we face Chelsea this weekend, with the return of Ross Barkley.
Villa have been dealt countless injury setbacks in recent weeks, with key individuals sidelined and leaving us short-handed as we attempt to compete across multiple fronts.
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That in turn has also put a bigger strain on others to play significant minutes with a lack of alternative options, with Youri Tielemans established as a mainstay in the side while John McGinn has dropped deeper to fill in alongside him in the midfield pivot.
While we’ve been boosted by the returns of Matty Cash, Tyrone Mings and Ollie Watkins over the past week, we’re still without Amadou Onana, Boubacar Kamara, Leon Bailey, Ezri Konsa and Pau Torres, but it sounds as though we could get at least one more key figure back this weekend when we host Chelsea in the Premier League on Saturday evening.
Barkley, 31, has made 23 appearances across all competitions so far this season, scoring four goals and providing two assists.
Albeit he hasn’t been a regular starter, he has played an important role for Emery when called upon, and so with the FA Cup and Champions League being added to our fixture schedule in the coming weeks too, it will be a real boost to have him back available.
“Ross is going slower than we planned because he’s feeling some pain, but at the start of this week, we were thinking he would be available today, but maybe Saturday he will be with us,” Emery is quoted as saying by the Athletic’s Jacob Tanswell.
Barkley gives us another option in midfield to help control games with his technical ability and composure, and we’ve seen how effective he can be in the latter stages when we’re pushing for a breakthrough.
Particularly against sides who want to sit deeper and in numbers to frustrate us, individuals like Barkley become increasingly important to add craft and creativity to our build-up play, and so it’s hoped that he can indeed make his comeback this weekend.
Naturally, he’ll need time to get back up to speed having had a lengthy stint on the sidelines, but with the likes of Konsa and Bailey also expected to come back into contention this weekend, we’re hopefully moving towards a fully-fit squad again sooner rather than later.
