Aston Villa travel to face Southampton in the Premier League this weekend, and Unai Emery has provided our latest team news ahead of the encounter.
Villa were left disappointed in midweek as we suffered a 3-1 defeat in the first leg of our Champions League quarter-final tie with Paris Saint-Germain, but we’ll have to shake that off quickly with so much still to play for domestically.
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With a two-point gap to bridge to the top five to secure Champions League football again for next season, albeit Newcastle Utd have a game in hand on us still, it’s imperative that we bounce back immediately and get back to winning ways this weekend, against a Saints side who have already had their relegation back to the Championship confirmed.
The expectation is that Emery will rotate significantly with the quality available to him, but the Villa starting line-up will remain a strong one, and as we’ve continued to welcome back key individuals from injury over the past few weeks, the hope ahead of this clash was that we didn’t suffer any fresh setbacks in the French capital earlier in the week.
Speaking to the media in his pre-match press conference, the Villa boss provided positive news as he has no new concerns, while Leon Bailey could be in contention to feature after his lengthy injury layoff in recent weeks.
“We are going to train now, in one hour we are on the field,” he said, as per VillaTV. “And how they are ready, the players today. Yesterday we worked, of course, and at the beginning the players who were available for Wednesday will be for tomorrow. But I will check it.
“The only one is Leon Bailey, who is progressively getting better.
“Today, maybe, he is working with the group.
“If not for tomorrow, hopefully for next Tuesday he will be available.
“And coming back after they’re not in the list, Andrés and Malen for tomorrow.”
It’s a really positive update to hear in that we’re unlikely to be without any key individuals, as although many are likely to be rested after their efforts on Wednesday night, we have so much quality and experience on the bench now that it shouldn’t result in a drop off when it comes to the Villa XI on Saturday.
Ross Barkley returned in midweek after his injury issues, and if Bailey is able to make his comeback this weekend too, that will only further arm Emery with tactical solutions and options to hopefully devise a gameplan to get the better of Southampton and secure all three points at St Mary’s.
With PSG travelling to Villa Park on Tuesday for the return leg, it will be interesting to see who gets the afternoon off this weekend to recover and prepare for that encounter, but it’s a fine balancing act for the Villa boss too as we simply can’t afford to drop points against Southampton and must show them the respect that they deserve in terms of not being complacent, and so there will be much intrigue around our potential line-up.
