Aston Villa travel to face Tottenham in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon, and here’s how Unai Emery’s starting XI looks for the encounter.
With the latest international break finally concluded, Villa are back in action this weekend and will face a difficult assignment against Spurs, who are just a point above us in the standings.
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There was good news in midweek from Emery in terms of team news with several key individuals expected to recover from knocks and issues to feature, while Jacob Ramsey was back in group training this week too, as both he and Alex Moreno close in on comebacks.
Nevertheless, there was still some concern that there might be absentees from the settled starting line-up that we’ve seen from Villa in the Premier League for the most part, while we also had to wait to see if Ramsey would provide us with another bench boost and make the matchday squad.
As per the club’s tweet below, it’s good news across the board with Emiliano Martinez and John McGinn fit to start, while Diego Carlos comes in for Youri Tielemans in one key change to the Villa line-up.
That in turn will see Matty Cash move into a more advanced role on the right side with Ezri Konsa shifting across to right-back, but given we’ve adopted that tactical set-up on occasion previously this season, it should hopefully be a seamless transition.
Meanwhile, there is good news on Ramsey too as he is included on the bench, with a strong group in reserve given Alex Moreno and Tim Iroegbunam also make the squad.
Emery will therefore have options to bring on to change the game if necessary, albeit Nicolo Zaniolo hasn’t recovered in time after suggestions in midweek that he had picked up an issue on international duty.
Villa can move into the top four in the Premier League with a win on Sunday, and it’s hoped that this starting XI can secure all three points in north London, to pick up from where we left off prior to the break.
Representing Aston Villa. 👊 pic.twitter.com/x7IJhTDlmt
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) November 26, 2023