Aston Villa face Nottingham Forest in the Premier League on Saturday, and Unai Emery has provided our latest team news.
Villa will be looking to bounce back after our defeat at Arsenal in midweek, which ended an 11-game winning streak across all competitions.
Fortunately, our rivals in the race for Champions League qualification all dropped points during the week too, and it’s hoped that we can get back on the right track immediately and continue to solidify our position in the top four in the Premier League standings.
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It certainly won’t be straight-forward against a Forest side desperately battling for points in order to move away from the relegation zone, and so Emery and the players will be fully aware that we need to be at our best in this one to avoid our midweek setback becoming a longer blip.
There is good news as both Matty Cash and Boubacar Kamara will return after serving their suspension at the Emirates, but as confirmed by the Villa boss below, he’ll still be without a string of key individuals.
“They are not available for tomorrow: Tyrone Mings, Pau Torres, Amadou Onana, Ross Barkley, Harvey Elliott, Evann Guessand, and Alysson,” Emery confirmed in his pre-match press conference, as per Villa TV.
“When they are expected to come back with the team, I don’t know. Onana got injured on Tuesday; Pau got injured one month ago.
“Pau maybe is [back] in one or or two weeks, and Mings as well. Onana, more.”
Given Pau’s influence in defence, it’s such a blow to still be without him, but it’s a fresh setback that Onana has now picked up a problem after being forced off at half-time against Arsenal.
The Belgian international was on an impressive run of form prior to that encounter, while his importance was emphasised given how we struggled without him in the second half.
Naturally, having Kamara back in the side is a massive boost, but it’s hoped that Onana, along with our other absentees, can return sooner rather than later.