Aston Villa face Man Utd in the Premier League on Sunday, and Unai Emery has named his starting line-up for the encounter at Villa Park.
After the high of defeating Bayern Munich in the Champions League in midweek, Villa will be looking to sign off ahead of the international break with another big win to wrap up a positive start to the campaign.
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The visitors arrive under pressure given their recent results, but that may well make them a dangerous proposition, particularly with the quality that they still have in Erik ten Hag’s side.
In turn, Villa will have to put that win over Bayern in the past and focus fully on the task in hand, but that was complicated this week due to a lengthier absentee list through injury.
John McGinn remains sidelined with a hamstring injury while both Tyrone Mings and Boubacar Kamara are expected back after the international break as they stepped up their comebacks by featuring for the U21s this weekend.
However, Emery noted in his pre-match press conference on Friday that Amadou Onana, Jacob Ramsey and Leon Bailey were all doubts for this game due to issues that they suffered earlier in the week, and so there was an anxious wait to determine if they were available or not, and subsequently, how many changes the Villa boss would make to his XI.
Neither Onana nor Ramsey have made it, as Villa make three changes to the starting line-up, as per the club’s post below.
Bailey is fit enough to start and so he replaces Ramsey, while Ross Barkley gets the nod in midfield alongside Youri Tielemans to fill the void that Onana leaves behind.
Emery has also made a switch at the back as Matty Cash comes in for Diego Carlos, which in turn of course means that Ezri Konsa goes back to his preferred position of centre-half.
Naturally, there are some key individuals missing and so Villa are weakened by that, but ultimately it’s still a strong XI that has plenty of quality running through it, and with good options on the bench to call upon if required, it’s hoped that we can sign off ahead of the international break with another important three points.
👇 Our starting XI for this afternoon’s clash with Manchester United.#AVLMUN || #UpTheVilla pic.twitter.com/DJWUmEENZ5
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) October 6, 2024