With Villa having won both their final warm-up game against Manchester United (1-0) and then the midweek 2nd Round Carabao Cup game against Burton Albion (1-3), all attention now turns to the Premier League.
Villa sat out the first weekend of the domestic calendar owing to Manchester City’s European involvement, meaning that Dean Smith will have to wait until this Monday evening for Villa’s opening game.
Villa continue to be active in the transfer market with a sizeable amount of news and rumour still circulating, despite having already added Ollie Watkins, Matty Cash and Emi Martinez to the squad.
INJURY LATEST
Embed from Getty ImagesBjorn Engels continues to be plagued by injury, with the Belgian having been unable to shake off an achilles complaint across the entire lockdown and restart period.
The 26 year old is now out with a thigh strain.
Engels, who on paper appears a perfect partner for Tyrone Mings, unfortunately cannot be relied upon to be availble as Villa head into a vital second Premier League campaign.
He also now finds himself facing the reality that Ezri Konsa, a relative rookie by comparison just a season ago, has now leapfrogged him in the pecking order. Indeed, Konsa and Mings will wear shirt numbers 4 and 5, with Kortney Hause appearing capable standby, whilst not a first choice.
Dean Smith will also be without both Tom Heaton and Wesley, who are both still recovering from serious knee injuries, coincidentally suffered at Burnley on New Years Day.
Heaton, who also finds himself replaced by former Arsenal ‘keeper Martinez, looks to be out until at least the 17th October. There is little clarity on the progress of the England international’s recuperation however, but as and when he does return to fitness he’ll need to oust Villa’s new Argentine stopper.
Finally, Wesley, who only returned to Birmingham from Brazil in recent days, also won’t feature against Sheffield United. There is also no clear return date for the former record signing, who will find himself in direct competition with Ollie Watkins once fit.
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Yeah, Engels is now clearly behind Kinda in the first team pecking order, which is a shame as he looked really good for the first few months of last season. Once we hit December, he started to struggle, but he wasn’t alone in that. A lot of players confidence and form started the really dip around the time we lost McGinn, which partly led to the switch to three at the back – a tactical change which really didn’t work all that well for us). I still believe Engels has a lot to offer, but it’s going to take a real determined effort for him to displace Konsa once he gets back to full fitness.
Wesley, I’m hopeful Ng he can get back to full fitness ASAP. Watkins can play across the front three and while he was undoubtedly brought in as a focal point for the attack, a three-pronged attack of Grealish, Wesley and Watkins sounds killer on paper. Add Traore to that line up and move Grealish into midfield and that’s a lot of fast, dangerous attacking options.
Well, that answers that then. Wesley is likely out until 2021, only just returned from Brazil and is nowhere near ready for Premiership football yet. It was an absolutely awful injury he suffered, so hopefully he continues to make steady progress in his recovery, we certainly wouldn’t want to rush him back.
The Traore deal has been completed which is good news, but all signs point to Samatta heading out on loan to Turkey.