Aston Villa face Fulham in the Premier League this weekend, and Unai Emery has provided our latest team news ahead of the encounter at Villa Park.
With results elsewhere going in our favour this past week, our pursuit of a Champions League qualification spot is still very much on, and so we must regroup and bounce back quickly after a bitterly disappointing run of consecutive defeats.
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The last-gasp loss at Manchester City was a blow, but the frustration and fallout over our FA Cup exit has been significant, and so Emery and the players will know that they have to produce a response on Saturday to get ourselves on track for our only remaining objective this season with just four league games to go.
Villa suffered a setback last weekend after Marcus Rashford sustained a hamstring injury and was ruled out entirely against Crystal Palace, and the expectation is that he may well now miss the rest of the campaign and has played his last game for us ahead of his loan spell ending.
It was hoped that we hadn’t had any additional blows this week, and as per Emery in his pre-match press conference, it doesn’t sound as though he’ll be without anyone else as he provided a positive update on Rashford’s current condition and suggested that there is still hope that he will be able to feature again this season.
“For tomorrow, he’s not available,” he told the media, as per VillaTV. “He’s working on his comeback as soon as possible, but there’s still weeks to be available or not with us for the rest of the season.
“Of course, there’s four weeks and hopefully he will play with us one or two matches.”
Meanwhile, Axel Disasi will be available after being cup-tied last weekend, and while it’s arguably unlikely that he comes into the starting XI, he’ll be an important defensive option to have on the bench in case we need him.
Villa have so much to play for in the coming weeks and there is now no room for error. Losing Rashford is a setback given he has made a positive impact since arriving in January on loan from Manchester United, but we still have the quality, experience and depth in the attacking third to get goals and hopefully secure all three points this weekend to get back to winning ways.
