Aston Villa face Tottenham in the Premier League this weekend, and Unai Emery has provided our latest team news ahead of the encounter.
It promises to be a difficult challenge to start a tricky period as we play away from home three times across the league and Champions League in the space of six days, and off the back of our midweek Carabao Cup disappointment, a reaction will be needed on Sunday in north London.
READ MORE: Five key talking points as disappointing Villa crash out of Carabao Cup
Villa were boosted by Tyrone Mings and Boubacar Kamara completing 90 minutes in our defeat to Crystal Palace, as we boasted an almost full-strength squad after many key players have returned in recent weeks from long-term injury layoffs.
It was hoped that that would be the ongoing theme going into this weekend too, and speaking to the media in his pre-match press conference, Emery provided the latest on the status of his squad ahead of facing Spurs.
“We trained today with some players only, other players were resting. Today was good,” he told reporters, as per VillaTV. “Tomorrow morning we will train again and hopefully we will have available the players who were on Wednesday.
“We have only one injured player, Ross Barkley has a small injury and won’t be available for the next two weeks.
“Everyone else, I think they are available and they are completely 100 per cent ready for Sunday.”
It’s a blow to lose Barkley as although he has been limited to a role off the bench for the most part, he gives Emery a different tactical option in midfield with his technical ability and composure in possession to drive us forward. The combination between him and Youri Tielemans has been vital in certain games where we’ve been searching for a breakthrough, and so it does take away an important option.
In turn, the onus will be on our favoured midfield pairing of Tielemans and Amadou Onana to give us a solid foundation in our upcoming games, while we do have the option of bringing Kamara into the team if needed now too.
Such is the strength in depth in this Villa squad, we are capable of dealing with injury blows as and when they occur, but naturally, Emery will hope that Barkley is available after the international break and can continue to make an important contribution to our pursuit of success this season.
Nevertheless, to go into the weekend with just one key individual missing isn’t too damaging, and so with the Villa boss giving a clean bill of health for the rest of the squad, it’s hoped that we’ve got the experience and quality to secure a crucial win.