Aston Villa face another difficult assignment in midweek as we take on Man City at the Etihad, and here’s how Unai Emery’s starting line-up could look for the encounter.
After our impressive win over Newcastle Utd this past weekend, that’s now five consecutive victories in the Premier League as we hit form at a critical time in our pursuit of Champions League qualification for next season.
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Making that six wins on the bounce will certainly be a tough ask though against a City side finding form too, and so it’s another showdown with a direct rival for Villa as we continue to try and close the gap.
With our FA Cup semi-final clash with Crystal Palace on Saturday, it remains to be seen how that impacts Emery’s selections for this game, as the Villa boss has consistently insisted that the Premier League remains our priority as we look to return to Europe’s top table next year.
Four potential changes, Watkins to keep starting spot
While there shouldn’t be much doubt over Emiliano Martinez continuing in goal, changes to our backline are expected once again as Pau Torres and Lucas Digne may well come in to replace Tyrone Mings and Ian Maatsen respectively.
Pau’s composure and technical ability will be pivotal in this encounter as we’ll need to retain possession well and build our own play to cause City problems, while Digne will hopefully shore things up defensively on that side and try to contain their threat in wide areas. Both Ezri Konsa and Matty Cash should keep their respective places for the same reasons.
It really is so hard to predict Villa’s starting line-ups now given the options Emery has at his disposal with a fully-fit squad, and so it remains to be seen if Youri Tielemans and Morgan Rogers are finally handed a rest, or if the tireless duo are still feeling fresh and ready to put in another big shift.
With our trip to Wembley in mind, we could see Amadou Onana come in to partner Boubacar Kamara in our deeper midfield pivot, while John McGinn will continue in an advanced role to give us energy and to apply pressure further up the pitch as we try to have some level of control in the game.
The pace and direct running of Donyell Malen and Jacob Ramsey out wide could be key in breaking with speed and creating openings, and so that duo makes sense to provide support behind Ollie Watkins, who will be itching to go again after playing such a decisive role in our win last time out.
Having spoken about his frustration over not starting in big games recently, the Villa striker will hope to be given the chance to build on his impressive display at the weekend, and Emery should back him to deliver in another crunch outing.
As noted above though, with the options we have now, it’s difficult to predict with any certainty the entire Villa XI. Axel Disasi, Andres Garcia, Mings, Maatsen, Ross Barkley, Tielemans, Marco Asensio, Rogers, Leon Bailey and Marcus Rashford will all be pushing for involvement from the start, but some will have to miss out on the matchday squad entirely such is the depth we have.
That’s on Emery to get his selections right for this game, and it’s hoped that the potential Villa starting XI below gives us the balance, tenacity and quality to get a positive result in Manchester.
