Aston Villa continue their pre-season preparations on Wednesday night as we face Athletic Bilbao, and here’s Unai Emery’s starting line-up for the encounter.
After a productive tour in the USA, albeit it yielded disappointing results, Emery will be looking to ramp up our preparations ahead of our Premier League season opener against West Ham Utd on August 17.
READ MORE: Five key questions Villa must still decide on ahead of season opener
The expectation is that the Villa boss will go with his preferred XI as far as possible and give them the bulk of minutes with just one more pre-season game remaining after this, while he’ll also hope to reintegrate Emiliano Martinez, Ezri Konsa and Ollie Watkins after their late return to training following their international exploits earlier this summer.
Time will tell when they’re ready to feature and get some valuable minutes having only rejoined the group on Tuesday, but this is now an important test for Villa both in terms of starting to make progress in looking more convincing as well as continuing to improve fitness levels.
It promises to be an intriguing encounter with Athletic Bilbao, and Emery has gone with a strong starting line-up, as per the club’s post below.
Jacob Ramsey starts in what is arguably the biggest boost, as the 23-year-old continues to step up his return from injury and will hopefully be in peak condition again by the time the new season starts.
However, there is no Enzo Barrenechea nor Diego Carlos in the matchday squad. It’s unclear as to why at this stage, but that’s now two consecutive games that Carlos has been left out after his red card against RB Leipzig, and so it remains to be seen if this is a significant indication of Emery’s plans without him.
As for Barrenechea, it’s hoped that it’s something minor if it is a knock that he’s picked up, while Martinez, Konsa and Watkins aren’t ready yet and have been left out too. It’s hoped that they get the opportunity to get back up to speed when we face Borussia Dortmund at the weekend, as well as everyone coming through these final two friendlies unscathed.
Your Aston Villa team for tonight. 👊 pic.twitter.com/FDQMu0Qcd1
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) August 7, 2024