Aston Villa host Fulham on Tuesday night as we look to secure three crucial points in our push for European football next season.
Villa showed great character to pick up a point at Brentford this past weekend, with Douglas Luiz’s late equaliser salvaging a point after we’d come under intense pressure for most of the match.
READ MORE: Five key talking points as resilient Villa salvage point at Brentford
Emery was pleased with the resilience of his players to get something from the game, but he’ll be looking for significant improvement in midweek as we try to get back to the level of performance we’ve shown consistently in recent weeks.
While Liverpool and Brighton have the advantage for now with their games in-hand, Tottenham look to be struggling, but it’s imperative that we continue to just focus on ourselves and continue to win as many games as possible between now and the end of the season to see where that leaves us.
Martinez a doubt? Emery to stick with same Villa XI…
There will hopefully be good news on Emi Martinez’s availability for this one after the Argentine international was forced off at half-time at Brentford due to a stomach bug.
While there was relief that it wasn’t an injury, it remains to be seen if he can fully recover in time for Tuesday, but the expectation is that he should be available.
“Before the match, the last meal, he was feeling bad with his stomach,” Emery told BBC Sport. “He started the match and played the first half. He wasn’t feeling good [at half-time]. Hopefully he’ll recover for the next match.”
Elsewhere, it’s hoped that there is better news on injured quartet Matty Cash, Boubacar Kamara, Philippe Coutinho and Leon Bailey, with that key group of individuals having now missed a significant number of games between them.
The likelihood is that if any of them have recovered to feature, it will only be from the bench given their lack of playing time in recent weeks, but it would still certainly be a boost for Emery to have that depth and different options to impact the game if needed.
That said, it’s a quick turnaround from the weekend, and so perhaps little has changed in terms of their availability over the course of 48 hours.
In turn, Ashley Young, Ezri Konsa, Tyrone Mings and Alex Moreno could continue as the backline, with John McGinn, Leander Dendoncker, Douglas Luiz and Jacob Ramsey forming our midfield once again as Emiliano Buendia will continue to support Ollie Watkins in the final third, barring any fresh fitness concerns.
While we didn’t maintain control of the game at Brentford as we have done so impressively in our excellent run of form, that Villa XI still has a solid balance to it and particularly at home against a side that will likely be a stubborn defensive unit to break down and look to counter, it could be the line-up that gives us the best possible chance of securing a crucial win.
Bertrand Traore, Lucas Digne and Calum Chambers will all be pushing for a starting berth as they are seemingly the top choices off the bench for Emery, but there’s potentially going to be little in the way of changes and it’s hoped that Martinez provides a critical boost for us by starting between the posts.