Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has provided our latest team news ahead of our Premier League encounter with Newcastle Utd on Saturday evening.
Villa will be looking to bounce back from the disappointment of our Champions League exit in midweek, as despite launching a stirring comeback to beat Paris Saint-Germain on the night, it wasn’t enough to get the better of the Ligue 1 champions over two legs.
READ MORE: Five key talking points as Villa seal stirring comeback win but fall short vs PSG
With so much still to play for this season as we look to secure a top-five finish in the Premier League and advance to the FA Cup final, focus must now switch quickly to the next objectives, and that starts with a fundamental showdown with Newcastle this weekend as we look to close the gap on our rivals in the standings.
Villa have benefitted significantly in recent weeks from welcoming key players back from injury to give Emery options in every department, with Leon Bailey and Ross Barkley the latest to rejoin the group after lengthy injury layoffs.
Both Donyell Malen and Andres Garcia will come back into contention as well after their ineligibility to feature in Europe, and so it remains to be seen how many changes the Villa boss opts to make to keep his players fresh.
“The most important for me now is how they are, the players,” he told the media at his pre-match press conference. “We are going to train this afternoon, we are going to try to test the players how they are for tomorrow.
“It’s good news that in the last matches we’ve been recovering a lot of players.
“At the beginning, every player is available for tomorrow.
“We’ll test them if someone can feel something or is tired more than normal.”
Such is our strength in depth now, we’ll put out a strong XI regardless and have quality on the bench to influence the game if needed, and it’s hoped that we find the right balance and intensity to secure all three points and maintain our impressive recent form in the league as we look to make it five wins on the bounce.
For Emery though, the fact that he believes he’ll have every player available to start with ahead of this weekend and has avoided seeing any fresh setbacks, that in itself is a major boost for the group.
It certainly won’t be straight-forward though as the visitors are in fine form themselves and have quality across the pitch, and so although our midweek exploits will have taken a lot out of the players, we must regroup and go again as we look to ensure that this season ultimately ends up being a memorable one.