Aston Villa face a difficult trip to Brentford on Saturday afternoon as Unai Emery and the players look to continue our brilliant recent run of form.
Seven wins in our last eight Premier League outings has helped lift us to sixth place in the standings, as we now set our sights on European qualification this season.
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However, Emery has been keen to guard against complacency and getting ahead of ourselves without losing that ambition, and he will know the difficulty of the next assignment ahead.
Brentford remain in the hunt for a top-half finish or better this season too as they look to close the gap on us, and so it will be yet another test of our credentials in terms of holding on to a place in Europe for next year.
Quartet available yet? Emery could go unchanged…
Much will perhaps depend on the latest teams news from Emery in his pre-match press conference on Friday, as await to see whether or not Matty Cash, Boubacar Kamara, Philippe Coutinho or Leon Bailey are back available yet.
Ultimately, given the length of time that they’ve been sidelined, it’s arguably fair to rule out both Cash and Coutinho from making an immediate comeback in the Villa starting XI, while Kamara was seemingly rushed back last time out and suffered a setback.
Further, with Bailey’s limited influence on our performances prior to his injury, there is an argument that none of the four will come back in for this game and Villa will go with an unchanged side.
Ashley Young continues to do a fantastic job at right-back in Cash’s place, and with the veteran having had a week to rest and recover, he’ll hopefully be feeling fresh and ready for another important game which in turn gives his teammate a chance to gradually work his way back in if available.
Additionally, with Leander Dendoncker producing a really impressive performance last time out in our win over Newcastle Utd, the Belgian midfielder arguably deserves an opportunity to build on that now and continue to play a key role for us while allowing Kamara more time to fully recover if needed.
Not only did he impress with his direct influence on our display, but he also affords more freedom to both Douglas Luiz and John McGinn to dictate and get forward, and so there is seemingly a good balance in the Villa midfield with that trio along with Jacob Ramsey.
That in turn leaves Emiliano Buendia supporting Ollie Watkins in the final third, while Emiliano Martinez, Ezri Konsa, Tyrone Mings and Alex Moreno should continue to form the backline.
With that consistency and familiarity in the Villa line-up, it will hopefully continue to be a key strength for us, as Emery will be eager to build on a winning formula and continue to find ways to improve it and make it more efficient at a crunch time in the campaign rather than having to chop and change too much.
