Aston Villa face Southampton in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon and Unai Emery has named his starting line-up for the encounter.
While there was disappointment in midweek as we suffered defeat in the first leg of our Champions League tie with Paris Saint-Germain, focus will have quickly switched to domestic matters as we continue our pursuit of a top-five finish.
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Villa will be fully aware that we can’t afford to drop points in the league between now and the end of the season if we are to secure a place at Europe’s top table again next season, and we certainly can’t be dropping points against the already-relegated Saints.
Emery was boosted by the absence of any fresh injury setbacks during the week, while Leon Bailey was said to be closing in on a return to join Ross Barkley after he was named in the matchday squad on Wednesday night after a lengthy injury layoff.
That said, Villa were expected to make changes and rotate again as we look to keep everyone fresh and utilise our strength in depth, and so as per the club’s post below, Villa have made four changes to the side that started earlier in the week, with Tyrone Mings, Ian Maatsen, Amadou Onana and Marco Asensio coming in to replace Pau Torres, Lucas Digne, Boubacar Kamara and John McGinn.
In truth, more changes were expected, but ultimately it’s a strong line-up with great options on the bench to change the game if needed, and the hope is that Villa can get the job done with minimal fuss to keep ourselves in the hunt for a top-five finish.
Neither Barkley nor Bailey make the matchday squad on this occasion and so it will be interesting to see when they can come back into the fold, with the likes of Youri Tielemans and Morgan Rogers continuing to carry a heavy workload, and so at some stage they’ll need to be rested.
For now though, our full focus is on Southampton and securing three vital points this weekend.
This afternoon’s starting XI to face Southampton #SOUAVL 👊 pic.twitter.com/jgT5DC9lkk
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) April 12, 2025
