Aston Villa were delighted to win 4-2 at home to Nottingham Forest on Saturday afternoon although, the result was slightly overshadowed by concerns over Pau Torres’ fitness.
Aston Villa widened the gap between 4th and 5th to five points with a win over Nottingham Forest on Saturday, a result that puts Unai Emery’s side in a good position to play in Europe next season.
The Villans needed a win at Villa Park to phase out the three consecutive losses in front of their fans, with the 4-2 win against Forest the perfect response at a critical point in the campaign.
Goals from Ollie Watkins, Leon Bailey and a double from Douglas Luiz sealed the win as the hosts played some attractive football, however, it wasn’t all rosy on the day.
What has been said about the injury to Pau Torres
At half-time, Villa withdrew Pau Torres due to a slight concern over the Spaniard’s fitness as he complained of pain in his leg.
The 27-year-old only returned from injury against Fulham last week, making his premature departure from the Forest game a worrying sight for Villa fans.
After the game, Emery gave a brief update on the defender’s injury.
“He had some pain so that’s why we needed to change him. He has a small pain down the back of his leg, hopefully, he’s not injured, but we decided not to take the risk with him.”
Why there will be some ‘worry’ over the fitness Pau Torres
Speaking after the weekend’s action on the Claret & Blue podcast, journalist John Townley admitted he had some “worry” over Torres’ fitness after his substitution on Saturday.
“You don’t want him to miss any game really, we’ve seen what happens when he’s not playing, we’re like 10-20 yards back from where we need to be when we defend when we’re on the ball so his influence is just crazy.”
“It is a bit of a worry that he’s getting these little knocks, I know the ankle one was a contact injury but wrap him in cotton wool.”
After the Fulham win, Torres received an abundance of praise for his performance in his first game back from injury, with his progressive style of play completely changing how Emery’s side transition through the channels.
Townley previously dubbed the defender as “transformational” for Villa, which is a fair comment considering that the Midlands club have a monstrous 76% win rate when the 27-year-old is in the starting lineup.
While the consensus is that Torres was withdrawn as a precaution, there is a host of anxiety due to how soon after returning the centre-back experienced a pain concerning enough to end his game after 45 minutes.
To reiterate how dire Aston Villa’s injury record has been this season, Emery was forced to bring on Calum Chambers to make his first Premier League appearance of the season to replace Torres.
The Englishman looked set to depart the club after the boss instructed that he could leave in both the summer and winter transfer windows although, Villa were forced to call on him on Saturday.
If Torres is to be absent again, Emery will have just Clement Lenglet and Calum Chambers available to play in central defence, the club’s fifth and sixth-choice players in that position.
Despite the highs that Villa experienced as a result of their win on Saturday, there is understandably a lot of worry as the squad waits to learn of the severity of Torres’ injury.
