Aston Villa face Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday night, and Unai Emery has named his starting line-up for the Premier League encounter.
It’s another crunch league showdown for Villa after we swept Newcastle Utd aside at the weekend, with the race for Champions League qualification continuing to look as though it will go down to the wire.
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With ground still to make up on our rivals, this is another critical game that we can’t afford to lose, but Emery has the added difficulty of trying to keep his players healthy, fresh and happy as we continue to rotate with our ongoing FA Cup run in mind, as our semi-final clash with Crystal Palace lies ahead on Saturday.
For now though, the focus is on City, and with the Villa boss confirming in his pre-match press conference that he has a fully-fit squad at his disposal once again, the expectation was that he would make more changes.
As per the club’s post below, Villa make five changes from last time out, with Pau Torres, Lucas Digne, Amadou Onana, Jacob Ramsey and Marcus Rashford coming in to replace Tyrone Mings, Ian Maatsen, John McGinn, Marco Asensio and Ollie Watkins respectively.
Given his impact at the weekend, there is a case to be made in favour of keeping Watkins in the starting XI and allowing him to build momentum, but ultimately Emery’s rotation and use of his squad depth has been spot in recent weeks, and he’ll know better than anyone who is best suited to helping us get the desired outcome in midweek.
Emiliano Martinez starts in goal with Matty Cash, Ezri Konsa, Pau and Digne completing our backline, while Onana and Boubacar Kamara form our deeper midfield pivot.
That in turn sees Youri Tielemans pushed forward into a more advanced role with Morgan Rogers and Ramsey either side of him, while Rashford will lead the Villa line.
It’s a balanced and talented Villa XI as expected, with Pau’s composure and ability in possession hopefully set to be a crucial factor in our desire to maintain some control in the game, while the pace and threat on the counter of Ramsey and Rogers with Tielemans pulling the string in the middle, will hopefully prove to be a decisive part in this game in Villa’s favour.
Your Villa starting XI to face Man City 👊 #MCIAVL pic.twitter.com/TWpIN0SJcP
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) April 22, 2025
