Aston Villa predicted line-up vs Brentford: two key changes made as £13m signing earns start

Aston Villa are currently sat in 10th place in the Premier League table. They have had to juggle European football with their domestic duties this season which hasn’t been easy.

Unai Emery’s side are still hoping to get into the top four again this year though. They are five points off with 10 fixtures left to play.

They won 3-1 away at Club Brugge in the Champions League last time out and face the Belgian club in the second leg next week. In the meantime, they face a clash against Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium this weekend.

Aston Villa predicted line-up to face Brentford

Aston Villa goalkeeper Emi Martinez has been ever-present for them between the sticks in this campaign. He is backed up on the bench by youngster Oliwier Zych at the moment as the Argentina international looks to keep Brentford at bay and get a clean sheet.

At right-back, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Matty Cash, who they bought for £13m according to Transfermarkt, come back into the starting XI after he came off the bench against Club Brugge in their last outing. On the other flank of defence, Luca Digne has enjoyed plenty of game time ahead of Ian Maatsen and injects experience into their ranks.

Ezri Konsa and Tyrone Mings have been Emery’s preferred centre-back pairing over recent times. They will hope that they can form a formidable partnership and soak up whatever pressure the Bees put them under on Saturday as Thomas Frank’s men eye a win.

Further up the pitch, John McGinn and Youri Tielemens are two important players for Aston Villa in the middle of the park. The latter has caught the eye this term and has made a whopping 40 appearances in all competitions already, finding the net on four occasions.

Marco Asensio moved to Villa Park in January and has made a positive impression so far. He was dropped to the bench against Club Brugge but could come back into the team for this one. Marcus Rashford also joined them earlier this winter after being given the green light to leave Manchester United on loan.

Morgan Rogers and Ollie Watkins are two dangerous assets for Aston Villa. They will be looking to add to their respective goal tallies over the coming weeks. The likes of Leon Bailey and Jacob Ramsey will be ready to step up from the bench if required.

Martinez; Cash, Konsa, Mings, Digne; McGinn, Tielemens; Rogers, Asensio, Rashford; Watkins

What has Unai Emery said?

Aston Villa boss Emery was delighted with their victory at Club Brugge. Speaking afterwards, he said: “It was like we planned. My expectations were more or less the difficulties we had, with the respect we have for them, trying to adapt to them more than I usually want.

“After the analysis we did and the match we played here in November, they are performing very well, they have a very good structure tactically with the ball, we decided to respect them when they were keeping ball possession with their positioning.

“The most important thing is how we competed in the match; how we competed at set pieces for the first goal, how we competed defensively sometimes deeper than I wanted. Sometimes we needed the goalkeeper, sometimes we needed Tyrone Mings’ save – we can remember the match we played here before with Tyrone and today he saved with a very good action.

“We subbed players for the last 30 minutes and kept the same gameplan. We were resilient sometimes and we scored two goals in the last ten minutes.”