Unai Emery has noted that he’s hopeful that Aston Villa duo Leon Bailey and Youri Tielemans will be fit to face Brentford this weekend.
Neither player was named in the squad that travelled to face Zrinjski in the Europa Conference League on Thursday, with Bailey coming off at half-time against Arsenal last weekend having picked up a knock in the first half.
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Tielemans didn’t last much longer as he was replaced after 56 minutes, and so after important, but draining, shifts against Manchester City and the Gunners in the space of a few days, the pair were among those to be in need of a rest to recover from those physical demands.
Villa were able to get the result we needed in midweek to advance as group winners, and with Emery rotating having made eight changes from the weekend, it’s hoped that we’ve got a fresh group of key players ready for another difficult test at Brentford on Sunday afternoon.
Speaking after the game, the Villa boss suggested that he was hopeful that both Bailey and Tielemans will come back into contention in time, while he’ll of course assess the rest of the squad too, in order to determine who’s best placed to start.
“Now we are going to focus on the Premier League and on Sunday in Brentford,” Emery told VillaTV. “We are going to try and recover from the match we played tonight and with other players, some players like Tielemans and Bailey, hopefully we can get the match on Sunday with the players ready to play.”
We’ll be without two important players in Douglas Luiz and Lucas Digne as they both serve a one-match suspension for an accumulation of yellow cards, and so Emery will need to find solutions to fill those voids already.
While Alex Moreno will likely come in for Digne at left-back, Tielemans will be a crucial option to have to cover for Luiz in a more central midfield role, while Bailey has been in excellent form so far this season on the right flank.
Villa do have options now with a squad that has depth and quality, but Emery will undoubtedly hope to be as close to full strength as possible on Sunday to have the best chance of coming away with a positive result.