Aston Villa face a difficult trip to Wolves this weekend as Unai Emery will be looking for a response and a return to winning ways.
Villa suffered a blow to our hopes of qualifying for Europe last time out with defeat at Man Utd, and so it’s important that we bounce back and get ourselves firmly back in contention again.
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Results elsewhere didn’t go our way in midweek and so we find ourselves in 8th place with four games remaining, but there is still plenty to play for as we hope to finish in the top seven.
We haven’t got a great recent record against Wolves though, and so we’ll need to put in a top performance to come away with three valuable points and set up a fascinating end to the campaign.
Villa unchanged again? Fitness boosts for bench hoped for…
While we’ll hear more from Emery in his pre-match press conference on team news, the expectation is that we’ll be unchanged again for this one given how long those who are coming back from injury have been sidelined for.
It’s difficult to see how Matty Cash, Boubacar Kamara, Leon Bailey or Philippe Coutinho could be fit enough to immediately return to the Villa starting XI, but time will tell if there is a surprise ahead of Saturday.
For now though, Emiliano Martinez will continue between the posts, with the expectation that Ashley Young will remain at right-back if Cash isn’t ready to go, with Ezri Konsa, Tyrone Mings and Alex Moreno completing the backline.
John McGinn, Leander Dendoncker, Douglas Luiz and Jacob Ramsey will form the midfield, while Emiliano Buendia could continue to support Ollie Watkins.
Dendoncker’s involvement from the start could be under threat if Kamara is in contention, while the same could be said for Buendia who has struggled in recent games, albeit there is seemingly a lack of alternative options unless one of Bertrand Traoré or Jhon Duran gets an unexpected starting berth.
It’s likely to be as we were for Villa, but hopefully with the much-needed boost of having crucial options back on the bench to not only give us fresh legs and impetus with fatigue becoming a factor, but also to provide Emery with vital different tactical solutions and threats to influence the game if needed.
