Aston Villa face Brighton in a crunch Premier League encounter on Sunday, and Unai Emery has named his starting line-up.
Villa know a win at the Amex Stadium coupled with defeat for Tottenham at Liverpool on Sunday will secure fourth place and Champions League qualification, and so it’s imperative that we do our job in the earlier kick-off.
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There will be tired minds and legs though after our midweek exploits, and particularly with a showdown with Olympiacos to come on Thursday night as we try to overturn a 4-2 deficit in the second leg of our Europa Conference League semi-final tie, it was unclear if Emery would make multiple changes.
The Villa boss will know though that a win here would certainly boost confidence and give us momentum ahead of our trip to Greece, but he continues to have to deal with injury concerns as he gave little away in his pre-match press conference in terms of who might be able to return to feature.
Emiliano Martinez and Youri Tielemans were the latest to suffer setbacks last week against Chelsea, while Alex Moreno was said to be closing in on a return as Nicolo Zaniolo made his comeback last time out off the bench.
It would undoubtedly be a massive boost to get that trio back, but as per the club’s tweet below, it’s only Moreno who manages to return to the bench for this one, with both Martinez and Tielemans still sidelined.
In come Diego Carlos and Pau Torres to replace Matty Cash and Clement Lenglet in our two changes, while the rest is as we were in midweek.
Despite Zaniolo travelling to Brighton, he doesn’t make the matchday squad, and so it’s hoped that we have enough quality on the bench to impact the game, if they are needed.
It’s another big week in our season, and Villa will be hoping to make the perfect start with three huge points against Brighton.
Your Aston Villa team today! 👊 pic.twitter.com/ptIrJYQFmg
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) May 5, 2024
