Aston Villa face Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Wednesday night, and Unai Emery has provided our latest team news ahead of the encounter.
Villa bounced back in impressive fashion this past weekend with a convincing win over Nottingham Forest, as we continue to solidify our place in the top three in the standings.
However, our recent record against the Eagles is bitterly disappointing, and so this promises to be a real test of our credentials to secure a Champions League qualification spot, and perhaps aim for more this season.
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Evann Guessand remains on international duty with Ivory Coast while Ross Barkley is a long-term absentee due to injury, and Emery conceded last week that Amadou Onana is likely to be on the sidelines for a significant time too. However, it had been hoped that we would get positive news on the recoveries of both Pau Torres and Tyrone Mings, and the Villa boss provided that as the defensive pair could be in contention to feature at Selhurst Park.
“We’re training now, after the press conference,” he said, as per VillaTV.
“We’ll see how they are doing, the players, after the match we played on Saturday.
“Tyrone and Pau are close but we are going to train now, I don’t know if for tomorrow they’ll be available or not.
“And other players – no Barkley, no Guessand, no Amadou.
“But we have enough players; after training we’re going to decide if someone is close, like Pau and Tyrone Mings.”
With Victor Lindelof doing an excellent job deputising alongside Ezri Konsa in the heart of the Villa defence, coupled with Matty Cash returning from suspension last time out, Emery doesn’t necessarily need to rush either Pau or Mings back into the side, and so perhaps it remains to be seen if they make the bench for this game.
Nevertheless, such is Pau’s influence in particular, it would be a huge boost to have him back in the Villa XI, and so it’s great news to hear that he is closing in on a possible comeback from his injury.
The main thing for Villa though is finding a way to win in midweek, as we look to build momentum once again and try to put together another impressive winning streak to keep ourselves in contention at the top end of the table.
