With preparations underway for our encounter with Chelsea on Saturday, Aston Villa boss Unai Emery could have a difficult team selection decision on his hands.
As per the Polish men’s national team’s tweet, Matty Cash has returned from international duty early due to a calf injury, and is expected to sit out of training for a week.
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In turn, that puts his involvement against Chelsea in major doubt, and having kept three clean sheets in our last four games, it’s an unwanted disruption to a backline that has become the foundation of our impressive recent run.
Fortunately, Emery does have options. Despite question marks being raised over squad depth and competition after the January transfer window, we do still have quality available to step in across the pitch to deal with absentees, and it’s no different in defence as we could be forced into a change.
Villa confirmed last week that Diego Carlos played 67 minutes in our friendly against Bristol Rovers, marking his first appearance since suffering a ruptured Achilles tendon back in August last year in just his second competitive outing for us.
While he’s been involved in group training for some time now and has been named on the bench for the last few games, the 30-year-old Brazilian centre-half is still lacking match fitness and sharpness, and while we hope that any risk of suffering a setback is now behind him, there is still a concern over bringing him back in too soon.
The tempo, intensity and physical demands of the Premier League are a completely different story to a behind-closed-doors friendly, and Emery will no doubt know that and ideally want to gradually integrate Carlos back into the side with minutes off the bench in the coming weeks to get him back up to speed.
He can do exactly that by opting for Ashley Young to slot in and deputise for Cash at right-back on Saturday if needed instead, as the wily veteran has shown his ability to be a reliable presence in the Villa backline already this season and will be itching to get back into the XI.
Given how little we’ve seen of Carlos since his summer arrival, it’s natural that many will be desperate to have him back in the fold as soon as possible. However, he surely still hasn’t played anywhere near enough minutes yet to be ready to start against Chelsea, and his inclusion would potentially risk disrupting the balance and solidity of the defence further with Ezri Konsa perhaps being shifted across to right-back.
That arguably changes too much to a competitive and winning side, and so while it’s hoped that we’re in a position in our upcoming games to get Carlos onto the pitch in the latter stages to help us see out positive results, there’s no need to rush him back this weekend if Emery is forced into a change at the back with Cash absent.