Aston Villa face a crunch encounter with Tottenham on Saturday with the result likely to be decisive to our hopes of European football next season.
Villa sit in eighth place in the Premier League table ahead of kick-off, with a win moving us level with Spurs and above Brighton, but with the latter playing on Sunday and still having two games in hand.
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In turn, we can only focus on ourselves and control what we can, and that’s trying to get three massive points against Tottenham and putting us right back in the hunt after disappointing back-to-back defeats.
It won’t be easy as despite their struggles this season, Spurs have plenty of quality in their side and won last time out in an important boost for them, and so Unai Emery will demand a much-improved performance and hopefully the result comes off the back of that.
Defensive reshuffle? Kamara fit enough to start?
Emery tweaked things in the second half against Wolves last weekend, with Diego Carlos making his highly anticipated return, which in turn saw Ezri Konsa shift across to right-back.
The Brazilian centre-half not only brings strong defensive qualities to the side, but he’s arguably going to be a perfect fit for Emery’s style of play and desire to play out from the back given his technical ability, and so as he continues to get match fit, there is little doubt he will have a big role for us.
That said, the decision the Villa boss has to make is whether or not he’s ready to start this weekend. If he’s confident in his fitness and mentality, then there’s a strong argument in favour of going with that, with Konsa able to use his pace and defensive strengths to hopefully keep Spurs quiet on that flank if matched up against Son or Richarlison.
Ashley Young has done an excellent job deputising at right-back since Matty Cash suffered an injury setback – and the Polish international could even be in contention himself having now returned to training – but Young’s lack of pace and the demands put on him in recent weeks could mean a change is the smart decision.
Emiliano Martinez will continue between the posts, with Tyrone Mings and Alex Moreno likely to complete the backline.
Further, Boubacar Kamara also made his latest comeback from injury in a brief outing at Molineux, and the Frenchman’s return will be huge for us if he is considered fit enough to now start again.
His influence in both phases of the game is so important to the style we’re trying to implement and how we control games, and so pairing him back up with Douglas Luiz would be a real boost, with John McGinn able to then return to the right side as Jacob Ramsey continues on the opposite flank.
Albeit they’ve struggled to find a decisive end-product in recent weeks, Emiliano Buendia and Ollie Watkins are likely to continue to get the nod in the final third, but the likes of Jhon Duran, Philippe Coutinho, Bertrand Traore and Leon Bailey will undoubtedly be pushing for more minutes too.
The inclusion of both Carlos and Kamara in the Villa XI would be vital for us, but we’ll certainly know more after Emery’s pre-match press conference on Friday and time will tell if he’ll prefer to stick with what we’ve gone with in recent weeks or if it’s time for some limited, but crucial, changes.
