Aston Villa travel to face Newcastle Utd in the Premier League on Boxing Day, and Unai Emery goes with an unchanged line-up for the encounter.
Villa were hugely impressive last time out in our win over Manchester City, and so it will come as no real surprise that Emery has opted to stick with the same XI that secured that excellent result.
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That in turn means that Emiliano Martinez continues in goal, with a back-four consisting of Matty Cash, Ezri Konsa, Pau Torres and Lucas Digne taking their respective spots in front of him.
Amadou Onana and Boubacar Kamara form our deeper midfield pivot, while Youri Tielemans will continue in an advanced role with Morgan Rogers and John McGinn playing out wide.
Up top, Jhon Duran keeps his place as he looks to continue his brilliant form in recent weeks, and so that in turn means that Ollie Watkins once again has to settle for a place on the bench.
Villa were deserved winners over Man City last weekend, but we’ll need the same level of quality, intensity, aggressiveness and discipline if we’re to come away with something from this game, as it promises to be another difficult challenge against a direct rival.
The physicality and ability to impose ourselves in midfield with Onana and Kamara at the base will be fundamental to give us control, and so if we can maintain the standard that we set last Saturday, it will put us in a strong position to get a positive result on Tyneside.
As ever this season though, we have a stacked bench with plenty of experience and quality on it, and so if we do indeed need to change things, Emery has the depth to make decisive tweaks that could influence the game.
Newcastle sit just two points behind us in eighth place in the Premier League table, and so this is another pivotal clash for Villa as we look to continue to build momentum and climb the standings.
Our Boxing Day starting XI 👊 #NEWAVL pic.twitter.com/RYkGsio2X6
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) December 26, 2024
