Aston Villa face Arsenal in the Premier League on Sunday evening, and Unai Emery has key decisions to make for a difficult test at the Emirates.
While we were able to secure a win over Lille in midweek in the Europa Conference League, our domestic form has dipped in recent weeks as we’ve picked up just one win in our last five games.
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That in turn has allowed Tottenham to leapfrog us into fourth place, having also played a game less, and so our hopes of qualifying for the Champions League remain in the balance.
It makes this encounter all the more important, as if we pick up a positive result in north London ahead of the second leg of our quarter-final tie against Lille, it will hopefully prove to be a positive and decisive week for our season.
Emery has decisions to make though, as he has to get the balance right between rotation and being competitive across both fronts to achieve our objectives.
Villa team news vs Arsenal
After his late booking against Brentford, Douglas Luiz will now miss our next two Premier League games due to suspension, and so his absence in the heart of the midfield will be a real blow.
Long-term absentees Tyrone Mings, Emiliano Buendia, Boubacar Kamara and Jacob Ramsey remain sidelined, although Emery provided better news on Friday in his pre-match press conference, confirming that both Clement Lenglet and Matty Cash are back in group training after spells on the sideline due to injuries of their own.
Potential Villa XI vs Arsenal
Much will depend on how much Emery wants to rotate, and so that makes this task very unpredictable as he could go similar to Man City away and make multiple changes, or try and go with a stronger line-up this time.
The expectation remains that Emi Martínez will start in goal as usual though, with Ezri Konsa, Diego Carlos, Pau Torres and Lucas Digne ahead of him, the same backline that started against Lille. This one should come too soon for Lenglet and Cash, while Digne could be favoured over Alex Moreno due to his defensive capabilities.
In midfield, John McGinn could shift to a deeper, more central role in the absence of Luiz to partner Youri Tielemans, with Leon Bailey and Morgan Rogers in the wide positions.
That in turn opens up a spot for Moussa Diaby to return to the Villa XI, and he’ll support Ollie Watkins up top as we look to play with pace and precision in transition.
The likes of Jhon Duran, Nicolo Zaniolo and Tim Iroegbunam will push to be involved and Emery may well go with them instead to freshen things up, but ultimately Villa could certainly do with a positive result this weekend, and he has to select the strongest available side.
With such a quick turnaround to the Lille game, we could see changes in France instead, but time will tell what the Villa boss goes with, as he’ll have his game-plans and preferred personnel to get the job done.
