Aston Villa face Chelsea in the Premier League on Saturday, and Unai Emery has provided our latest team news ahead of the encounter at Stamford Bridge.
After our win over Manchester United last time out, Villa have now won 10 consecutive games across all competitions, and subsequently we’ve put ourselves in a strong position both in the Premier League and Europa League standings.
However, we haven’t achieved anything yet, and Emery will undoubtedly be demanding more from his players and striving to raise our level further in order to keep this positive run of form going for as long as possible.
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It certainly won’t be straight-forward at Chelsea as they look to close the gap on us in the standings, and with a hectic fixture schedule ahead, ideally, Emery would have as close to a fully-fit squad at his disposal as possible.
However, speaking to the media in his pre-match press conference on Friday afternoon, the Villa boss confirmed that Pau Torres, Tyrone Mings and Ross Barkley remain sidelined due to injury, while Evann Guessand will play no part having now joined up with the Ivory Coast squad for AFCON.
Jadon Sancho will be available for selection again after missing out last weekend due to being ineligible to face his parent club, and so that will no doubt be an important boost for us on the bench to add more quality and depth.
“We have the same players,” Emery told reporters, as per Villa TV. “We are training and we were playing last week, only adding Guessand after he left with his national team.
“Players who were injured are still injured.
“Other players are ready and hopefully tomorrow as well, in normal process to play.”
Although Villa travel to face Arsenal just days later, the full focus will be on Chelsea and trying to get a positive result in west London this weekend, as stretching our current seven-point gap over Enzo Maresca’s side will undoubtedly be a huge boost in our pursuit of Champions League qualification.
Further, having already registered wins over Arsenal and Manchester City in recent weeks, this would be another big win to strengthen our credentials to perhaps achieve something even bigger this season, but that won’t cross the minds of the Villa boss or his players, as getting three points on Saturday evening will be the only thing that matters.