Aston Villa return to Premier League action this weekend as Unai Emery’s side host Everton at Villa Park on Saturday (5:30pm kick-off) before then opening their Champions League campaign a few days later.
Villa will travel to Bern next Monday ahead of facing Young Boys at the Wankdorf Stadium on Tuesday, September 17 (5:45 kick-off). Villa headed into the first international break of the season after beating Leicester City 2-1 at the King Power Stadium to register their second away win of the campaign having beaten West Ham in the capital on the opening weekend.
Emery will give a team news update later this week at his pre-match press conference after Leon Bailey picked up an injury in the win over the Foxes, while Ollie Watkins returned to Villa from the England national team to continue rehabilitation for an ongoing issue’ following an assessment. One of Villa’s finest forwards in recent decades, Dwight Yorke, has sung Watkins’ praises despite the striker’s difficult start to the season.
Yorke praises Villa’s Watkins
Yorke believes there is a clear resemblance between his game and Watkins’. The England international bagged 19 Premier League goals last season to fire Villa into the Champions League and won the Playmaker of the Season award after recording the most assists (13) in the division last term. He is closing in on Gabriel Agbonlahor’s tally of 74 goals in the league, which remains the most a player has scored for Villa in the Premier League.
“I see a lot of myself in Ollie Watkins,” Yorke told FourFourTwo. “He’s a creator, a dribbler and a finisher, a bit like I was back in the day. You saw from his number of goals and assists last term that he has a little bit of everything.
“His work ethic is also admirable. He’s a top, top player. You don’t get to that level, scoring that many goals and contributing creatively, unless you’re a fantastic footballer.
“It took him a little while to reach those levels, but now he is established. He’s one of those players you can pick again and again, every week, because his level is always high and he has shown that he can be trusted consistently. That’s what the top players do.
“Where does Watkins go from here? Can he produce that again this season, while also performing in the Champions League?”
Tielemans: Villa have no UCL points target
After facing Young Boys, Villa have back-to-back home games in the Champions League against Bayern Munich on Wednesday October 2 (8pm kick-off) and Bologna on Tuesday, October 22 (8pm kick-off).
Emery’s side then head to Belgium to face Club Brugge for their fourth league phase fixture. Midfielder Youri Tielemans, who came through the youth ranks at Anderlecht, will be expecting a hostile reception from Brugge fans.
‘The Topper’ is the name of the rivalry between Anderlecht and Club Brugge in Belgian football. The rivalry began in the 1970s when Club Brugge became a major title contender to the dominant Anderlecht.
“It’s nice to go to Brugge,” Tielemans joked in a press conference last week. “I could say it’s a happy reunion, but not really. These are the games you look forward to. They are high level games, but it will be nothing more than another game that we want to win.
“I know how difficult it will be in Brugge, and I have already warned my teammates about it. They are a very good team.”
Tielemans added: “It’s complicated to talk about our ambitions, we’ll really see match by match. The points system to progress to the next round is not yet very clear. We will just try to take as many as possible.”
International round-up
Tielemans got on the scoresheet for Belgium in their 3-1 win over Israel in Nations League league A group 2. He was withdrawn after 74 minutes, while Villa teammate Amadou Onana played the full 90 minutes.
The Red Devils face France on Tuesday night, where Lucas Digne could make his first appearance for Les Blues in over two years. Digne was called-up to the French squad for the September internationals, but didn’t feature in their defeat to Italy last week.
Kosta Nedeljkovic played the full 90 minutes of Serbia’s 0-0 draw with Spain, but Villa centre-back Pau Torres didn’t get on the pitch for the Euro 2024 champions. Nedeljkovic then featured for over an hour of Serbia’s 2-0 defeat to Denmark in Copenhagen.
John McGinn played 180 minutes in Scotland’s defeats to Poland and Portugal in Nations League league A group 1.
Morgan Rogers played the full match as England U21s drew 0-0 with Northern Ireland in European Championship qualifying. Samuel Iling-Junior – who is on loan at Bologna this season – also featured from the bench. The U21s play against Austria this evening at Kenilworth Road (7:45pm kick-off).
Emi Martinez could come up against Jhon Duran on Tuesday night when Argentina play Colombia (9:30pm). The Villa ‘keeper kept another clean sheet for Argentina in their win over Chile last week before he and his teammates paraded their 2024 Copa America trophy around the El Monumental.
Duran came on in the 72nd minute of Colombia’s clash with Peru and provided a headed assist from a corner for Luis Diaz’s leveller.
Villa defender Ezri Konsa was an unused substitute against the Republic of Ireland, but could feature for the first time under interim Three Lions boss Lee Carsley on Tuesday night against Finland (7:45pm kick-off). Joe Gauci didn’t play in Australia’s defeat to Bahrain last week and the Socceroos play Indonesia on Tuesday at 1pm.
Claret & Blue catch-up
To mark the return of Villa’s status as a participant in Europe’s elite club competition, we’ve produced this print special which is available to all supporters.
We look at how Emery – who is no stranger to winning European trophies – can lead Villa deep into the competition, and the players who will be key to their campaign, while breaking down their opposition in the league stage. Of course, we also turn the clock back to 1982 and that famous win in Rotterdam.
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