Aston Villa host Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Sunday night, and Unai Emery has provided our latest team news ahead of the encounter.
Villa will not only be looking to secure our first win of the season this weekend, but in doing so, also scoring our first goal of the campaign having drawn blanks against Newcastle United and Brentford over the past fortnight.
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We can ill-afford to have our poor start extend further as it will only serve to build pressure and disappointment heading into the international break, and so Emery will undoubtedly want to see a positive reaction from his players after our defeat last time out.
As per the club’s post, there is an important boost in defence as Ezri Konsa returns from suspension, and he’ll be expected to come straight back into the starting line-up to partner one of Tyrone Mings or Pau Torres in the heart of our backline, after the pair failed to convince together against Brentford.
However, while Emery hinted at possible injuries and absentees in his pre-match press conference, it has since been confirmed by Belgium boss Rudi Garcia that midfielder Amadou Onana has picked up an injury and he’ll miss the opportunity to represent his country next week, thus also ruling him out of Villa’s meeting with Palace on Sunday.
“We will see tomorrow, I don’t want to anticipate,” Emery told the media, as per VillaTV. “We have some players injured but I will want to train tomorrow and (see) how we can use the players in the squad for Sunday.
“Until tomorrow, the last training session, I don’t want to say anything.”
According to The Athletic, Onana suffered a hamstring injury in training on Wednesday, and given it comes just days after we saw Boubacar Kamara forced off the pitch against Brentford with a hamstring injury of his own, it’s another untimely setback in midfield and reduces our options in that area of the pitch.
The likelihood is that we’ll see John McGinn drop back and partner Youri Tielemans in our deeper pivot, which in turn opens the door for the likes Donyell Malen and Evann Guessand to come into consideration in the Villa XI in the attacking third, while it remains to be seen if Ross Barkley is available again or not, albeit he won’t be match fit to come straight into the line-up.
Emery could go more conservative and use Lamare Bogarde alongside Tielemans, and although it’s positive that we’ve got options and versatility to fill voids, it’s hoped that the Basque coach opts to go with a more positive and attacking option to try and take the game to Palace this weekend.
Given our struggles against Oliver Glasner’s side in recent times, it promises to be a very difficult challenge once again with an expectant Villa Park crowd looking for a response after a below-par start to the campaign, and although injuries certainly don’t help, Villa have enough in the squad to get the desired outcome.
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