Aston Villa face Burnley in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon, and Unai Emery has named his starting XI for the clash at Turf Moor.
After back-to-back wins over Everton and Hibernian, Villa have bounced back well after our opening weekend defeat to Newcastle Utd, scoring nine goals and keeping two clean sheets.
Sign up for the Talk Villa newsletter, a free weekly Villa round-up delivered straight to you!
While we’ll face a difficult test at Burnley, Emery will be hoping for more of the same as we build momentum and provide a positive reaction to adversity and setbacks on and off the pitch, and he’s had a key decision to make this week.
As the Villa boss confirmed in his pre-match press conference on Friday, Emi Martinez picked up a small calf injury against Hibernian on Wednesday, and was subsequently replaced at half-time.
In turn, the 30-year-old faced a late fitness test to determine his availability, and a decision has now been made on his involvement.
As confirmed by the club below, the World Cup winner has been ruled out with that injury, and so Robin Olsen steps in to replace him with the hope that he now puts in a solid shift and fills that void efficiently.
Meanwhile, Emery makes one other change with Leon Bailey dropping to the bench, as Matty Cash comes in and will likely be deployed in a more advanced role on the right side ahead of Ezri Konsa.
Having been ineligible to feature in midweek, Nicolo Zaniolo is named on the bench and will be hoping to make his debut, while Villa name just eight substitutes out of a possible nine with two goalkeepers on the bench, which in turn highlights our lack of depth at the moment following injuries and sales.
It remains to be seen if we end up strengthening further this week, but for now, the full focus will be on Burnley and it will be interesting to see the system and shape we adopt at Turf Moor with the key change on the right in mind.
Your Aston Villa this afternoon. 👊 pic.twitter.com/Irofd2lcj0
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) August 27, 2023