Aston Villa face Bournemouth in the Premier League on Saturday evening, and Unai Emery has named his starting line-up for the encounter.
It’s another crunch clash for Villa in our pursuit of Champions League qualification, as it’s likely that we’ll need to win our remaining three league outings to be in contention for a top-five finish.
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With a gap to close on our rivals, the pressure is certainly on the players to deliver, and this promises to be our most difficult challenge left with Bournemouth in good form and possessing plenty of quality in their side under a top coach in Andoni Iraola.
Further, Villa were dealt another injury blow in midweek with Youri Tielemans sidelined for this encounter with a muscle issue, as he joins Marcus Rashford in being ruled out, potentially for the rest of the season.
In turn, Emery was set to be forced into at least one change, as per the club’s post below, the Villa boss has opted to make four in total, with Tyrone Mings, Lucas Digne, Amadou Onana and Jacob Ramsey coming in to replace Pau Torres, Ian Maatsen, Tielemans and John McGinn.
That should hopefully give us a more solid foundation in the side to get a foothold in the encounter and have some control, with the aim of avoiding it becoming a more chaotic game which would suit the home side.
Nevertheless, Villa will have to be switched on throughout and avoid making errors in possession in our own third, something that Bournemouth will pounce on and be at their most threatening.
With no more room for error as we look to close the gap on our rivals, it’s a must-win game for Villa, and it’s hoped that we see the players put in a big shift and don’t have any regrets at full-time, which in turn will hopefully be enough to get the desired outcome.
How we start to face Bournemouth — UP THE VILLA ⚪️ pic.twitter.com/vbNkE7zqaw
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) May 10, 2025