Aston Villa face Everton in the Premier League on Wednesday night, and Unai Emery has provided our latest team news ahead of the encounter.
After defeating West Ham Utd in the FA Cup at the back-end of last week which followed our win over Leicester City in the league, Villa are starting to build momentum to start 2025, as we look to put a strong run of form together across multiple fronts.
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We face a difficult challenge in midweek though, as with David Moyes now back at the helm at Goodison Park and ready to take charge of his first game, it promises to be a tough atmosphere and test on Merseyside for Villa, as we must start fast and quieten the home crowd.
With a packed fixture schedule between now and the end of January, Emery would have been hoping for good news on the injury front this week to start moving towards having a full-strength squad at his disposal again, but there was mixed news as he spoke ahead of our trip to face Everton.
“Pau Torres, John McGinn are not available for tomorrow,” he told the media at his pre-match press conference. “Different injuries and different times for them to start again training with us. Barkley is two or three weeks more. McGinn will need one week minimum to be with us to train and play. Pau Torres is longer, six to eight weeks.
“Carlos is not fit. He is still being out of the team with a small injury. Emi Martinez trained this morning feeling good. In case tomorrow morning he is feeling good, he will be [in the team].”
It’s a huge boost to have Emiliano Martinez back after he was ruled out against West Ham with a minor injury, while Tyrone Mings and Ezri Konsa will continue in the heart of the Villa defence to ensure we don’t necessarily feel the absence of Carlos.
However, the sooner we can get McGinn back and provided that both Torres and Barkley can make positive progress in their respective recoveries in the coming weeks, we’ll hopefully be a much stronger unit by the end of the month.
Jhon Duran returns from suspension for this game which will be a major boost given his form prior to his absence, and while Villa look to strengthen the squad in the January transfer window, perhaps we’ll start to see reinforcements arrive in the coming days to give us a lift heading into the second half of the campaign.
