Aston Villa face Leeds United in the Premier League this weekend, and Unai Emery has provided our latest team news ahead of the encounter on Sunday.
Villa have recovered well after a desperately poor start to the season, and our 4-0 win over Bournemouth prior to the international break helped move us up to sixth place in the league standings.
With midweek European action to consider too, the schedule ramps up as we head into the festive period, and so Emery will hope that his squad is well-rested and for those who have returned from international duty, they have done so unscathed and are ready to pick up from where we left off.
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Speaking to the media in his pre-match press conference on Friday, Emery confirmed that Tyrone Mings remains sidelined due to injury, but he’s hopeful that Matty Cash, Lamare Bogarde, Ezri Konsa and Amadou Onana will all be available for selection in the matchday squad.
“Today, the last players joined with us after playing, performing for their national teams,” he told reporters. “Normally, we give them two days off after their last match playing there.
“The only player ruled out for Sunday is Tyrone Mings. And other players, tomorrow we’ll train, the last training session, normally, it could be everyone available.
“Tomorrow we’ll see it, they [Ezri Konsa, Lamare Bogarde, Amadou Onana, Matty Cash] are training.
“Amadou is the only player, he’s progressing well. Tomorrow we’ll see how he’s progressing.”
The Villa quartet in question all sustained knocks during the international break, and so it’s hoped that they will have had enough time to recover to ensure that they can play their part in getting a positive result at Leeds this weekend.
It certainly promises to be a tricky assignment on the road, and so particularly in relation to Konsa and Cash as we look to maintain our solid defensive foundation, it will be a major boost if they are passed fit to start on Sunday.
Villa host Young Boys in the Europa League on Thursday night, and so Emery will no doubt be weighing up his options following on from this weekend’s game in terms of rotation and who he will be able to rest in midweek, and so avoiding any further injury setbacks will be a welcome boost.
