Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has provided our latest team news ahead of facing Bournemouth in the Premier League this weekend.
Our brilliant recent form continued in midweek as we defeated Bologna in the Champions League, but the focus will have quickly shifted to the Cherries in what will be another difficult game as we look to maintain our impressive start domestically.
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There were a number of significant boosts on Tuesday night as Ezri Konsa and John McGinn returned to the starting line-up, while Boubacar Kamara came off the bench to get valuable minutes in the latter stages of our win and Tyrone Mings made the matchday squad for the first time since he suffered his serious knee injury last year.
In turn, the Villa squad continues to grow stronger, and there appeared to be positive news in training on Thursday, with Amadou Onana spotted working with the rest of the group after coming off at half-time against Bologna, with Emery noting that it was partly a tactical decision, but also down to the Belgian international feeling some pain.
It’s hoped that we will be at full strength on Saturday, and Emery spoke to the media in his pre-match press conference to confirm the latest news on the squad.
“We have all the players available, only not Jaden [Philogene], because he is suspended and we have two young players playing with the Under-21s today, Lamare Bogarde and Sil [Swinkels],” he told reporters, as per VillaTV.
That is such a crucial boost for Villa both in terms of having that consistency and familiarity in going with our strongest possible XI, but also having a bench with real quality and depth to make the difference if needed.
The expectation is that Emery will rotate and rest players next week in our Carabao Cup clash with Crystal Palace and go with as strong a line-up as possible this weekend, but such is the competition for places that we have now, even if the Villa boss did opt to make changes, he’ll be confident that there isn’t a drop-off when leaving out regular starters.
Ultimately, he’ll formulate a gameplan for a side that he feels will have the best possible chance of beating Bournemouth, but he’ll be delighted that he has a full squad to select from to give him multiple solutions.