Chelsea get tough draw in the FA Cup | What does this mean for Mauricio Pochettino?
As reported by Birmingham Mail, Aston Villa manager Unai Emery has confirmed that Matty Cash is out for a few weeks ahead of the Chelsea clash on Saturday.
The former Arsenal boss has revealed that Phil Coutinho is still injured, while Boubacar Kamara and Diego Carlos may play some part in the game if available for training on Friday.
Not having Cash must be a big blow to the west Midlands side as the Poland international is one of the best in the league when it comes to right-backs. It was unfortunate that he picked up his injury while playing for his country.
Here’s what Emery said about the status of his players (h/t Birmingham Mail):
“Yes, Cash is injured and he’ll be out for a couple of weeks or maybe more. Hopefully it’s less than three weeks but, more or less, this injury is going normally with the player three weeks, more or less.
“Coutinho is still injured. He’s progressing but not yet to train with us. Kamara, this week, was training with us and, if tomorrow he’s ready, I think I can use him in the squad to use him in the match on Saturday.
“Diego Carlos played last week with the under-21s and with us, 60 minutes, with Bristol Rovers. He’s ready to train normally every day. To play a match, he’s ready to play some minutes but not in the starting XI yet. But this week he’s progressed well. We’ll watch him on the pitch in the next few days. “
While our position at the table is far away from what we want to be, this is an important game. If we take a glance, Villa are level on points with us. So, if they win on Saturday, it would push us into the latter half of the standings.
That and the fact that Graham Potter would be aiming to gain some momentum ahead of the key games against Liverpool in the league and Real Madrid in the Champions League, this sounds like a must-win game, that too at Stamford Bridge where we stupidly lost two points against Everton just before the international break.
It won’t be easy though as Villa are a good unit under Emery. The Spaniard took charge of the team in October when they were languishing around the relegation spots.
Since then, they have done well to resurrect their position at the table. Let’s hope that we are at our best and get the job done on Saturday. Missing out on Cash, Kamara, Coutinho or anyone for that matter won’t be as big a boost as we may think it would be.
We aren’t playing good football for months and the Villans have respectable depth. Of course, missing out on first-team stars could bring down Villa’s quality by a notch or two but it will absolutely not impact Emery’s desire to beat an old rival.
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