Aston Villa face Everton this weekend in the Premier League, and Unai Emery has provided our latest team news for the encounter.
After seeing off Leicester City prior to the international break, it’s hoped that Villa can pick up from where they left as a struggling Everton side visit Villa Park on Saturday evening looking for a much-needed result.
READ MORE: Injury concern allayed after Villa ace picks up knock on international duty
That in turn will mean we must be at our best in order to avoid a slip-up, and having an almost fully-fit squad at his disposal would certainly help Emery moving forward, particularly with our Champions League campaign getting underway next week too.
There had been concern this week after Ollie Watkins returned early from international duty with England, while Ezri Konsa picked up a knock against Finland, which in turn forced him off the pitch after an hour.
Fortunately though, based on Emery’s latest comments, it sounds as though the influential Villa duo will both be available for selection this weekend and will hopefully feature to give us an important boost in a big week both domestically and in Europe.
“The players are coming back after they played with their national teams, they are in the squad,” he told the media at his pre-match press conference. “We don’t have big issues after it.
“He’s [Watkins] progressively getting better, feeling better, and he’s in the squad. And being in the squad, thinking tomorrow he’ll be available to play.”
It will be interesting to see if Emery rotates or rests certain individuals with our trip to face Young Boys in mind on Tuesday evening, as we’ll need to be careful with our management of players this season to ensure that they don’t burn out.
At this stage of the season though, the Villa boss will surely be eager to go with his strongest available line-up as often as possible, and particularly after a break, it will be important for the players who perhaps didn’t feature that significantly to get that match fitness and sharpness back.
Nevertheless, given what Konsa gives us in both phases of the game in the heart of our backline and with Watkins still searching for form and needing to play to get back to his best, it’s a huge boost to hear that neither have been ruled out for Saturday and will be in line to contribute.
While there was no mention of Matty Cash or Leon Bailey in the report above after they suffered hamstring injuries prior to the break, both Tyrone Mings and Boubacar Kamara remain sidelined despite returning to group training this month.
It’s hoped that Cash and Bailey are in contention, or at least on the cusp of being back available, but the Everton game may well have too soon for them too.
