Aston Villa face Fulham in a crunch clash on Tuesday night as Unai Emery looks to extend our impressive nine-game unbeaten run in the Premier League.
Villa salvaged a point at Brentford this past weekend as we showed great resilience and character to rescue a share of the spoils, but Emery will no doubt be looking for a significant improvement in the performance in midweek.
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Ahead of the meeting with Fulham, the Villa boss confirmed that Matty Cash, Boubacar Kamara, Leon Bailey and Philippe Coutinho remain sidelined due to injury, while Emiliano Martinez faced a late assessment after being forced to come off at half-time at the weekend due to a stomach bug.
Given his importance to the side, it was hoped that he could recover in time despite the quick turnaround between fixtures, and as per the club’s tweet below, the Villa talisman has indeed made it.
With his experience, leadership and obvious talent, Martinez is a pillar of this Villa line-up, and his organisation at the back will be fundamental to our hopes of keeping a clean sheet, which in turn sets us up for a possible win.
It’s the third consecutive game in which we’ve named an unchanged side, and so Emery will be delighted with the consistency in the team despite the injury issues detailed above.
Further, it’s nice to see another top young talent at the club named on the bench, with Tommi O’Reilly involved on a matchday and hopeful of an outside chance of getting some minutes.
Should that fail to materialise though, it’s still an important experience for him, and it’s hoped that the senior players around him can get the job done and secure three crucial points on Tuesday night to continue our pursuit of European football.
Your Aston Villa tonight. 👊 #AVLFUL pic.twitter.com/uMPf1uMbrK
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) April 25, 2023