Aston Villa conclude our pre-season tour of the USA on Sunday, as we face Brentford in our final game of the Premier League Summer Series in Washington.
After our draw with Newcastle Utd in Philadelphia last weekend, Unai Emery saw his side pick up a win over Fulham last time out in Orlando as our preparations for the new campaign continue.
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While the primary hope is that we continue to come through these games without any injury setbacks, it’s also vital to build fitness across the squad by sharing minutes out, and as we saw against Fulham in midweek, it also gives the Villa boss an opportunity to test out different tactical solutions.
Villa face Lazio and Valencia on our return home ahead of our Premier League season opener against Newcastle on August 12, and so we could now be edging towards seeing what Emery’s preferred starting line-up will be for that trip to St. James’ Park.
Diaby to start? Bailey joins up with the squad
After bagging a goal on his pre-season debut for us, Moussa Diaby could be in line to start this one as we look to build chemistry and understanding in the final third between him and the likes of Ollie Watkins and Emiliano Buendia.
The 24-year-old got an important run-out against Fulham, but it would come as no surprise if he came into the starting XI to try and build on that impressive first outing to continue to adapt to Emery’s demands.
Elsewhere, Emi Martinez is likely to come back into the side after Robin Olsen started last time out, with Matty Cash and Tyrone Mings also potentially returning to get valuable minutes, with Ezri Konsa and Lucas Digne perhaps completing our backline.
Seb Revan will more than likely replace Digne at some stage but there is a lack of competition there with Alex Moreno out, while Diego Carlos and Pau Torres will also be expected to make an appearance off the bench, assuming they don’t get the nod to start.
In midfield, Youri Tielemans could get a rest having been the only player to complete 90 minutes on Wednesday night, and that opens the door for Douglas Luiz to partner Boubacar Kamara in the heart of our midfield, With Diaby either playing out wide on the right or in support of Watkins who will come in for Cameron Archer, John McGinn could be deployed in the other role.
Buendia may well continue on the left side, while we’ll hopefully see Bailey, Philippe Coutinho, Omari Kellyman, Jaden Philogene, Aaron Ramsey and Kadan Young amongst others get some minutes too.
Pre-season is always a tricky time to predict how we’ll line up given the need to rotate and get everyone involved, but with our time in the USA concluding and with some key individuals still missing from the group, it’s likely that Emery will go with as strong a starting line-up as possible, while lessening the load on those that featured heavily last time out.