Aston Villa will be keen to stop the rot on Wednesday night by beating Athletic Bilbao after three consecutive pre-season defeats.
Aston Villa have now returned to England after their summer tour of the US saw them suffer three losses in three games against Columbus Crew, RB Leipzig and Club America.
Worryingly, Unai Emery‘s side scored just once across these three games, although the absence of Ollie Watkins after his Euro 2024 campaign goes some way to explaining this bluntness in attack.
Emery has just two games left to put things right before the Premier League campaign kicks off away at West Ham on August 17.
Villa face Athletic Bilbao at Walsall’s Poundland Bescott Stadium on Wednesday night before a trip to Germany to face Borussia Dortmund on Saturday.
Aston Villa team news for Athletic Bilbao friendly
Aston Villa have plenty of cause for optimism on the injury front this summer after a number of key players missed large chunks of last season.
Boubacar Kamara remains sidelined through the ACL injury sustained in February, but Emiliano Buendia made his long awaited-return in America having missed the entirety of last season.
Jacob Ramsey also had injury problems in what was a stop-start season last time around but made his return against RB Leipzig and will hope to build on that cameo in the last two friendlies.
Tyrone Mings continues to work towards his return from the ACL injury that kept him out from the opening day last season, but is not expected to make his return until some time in September.
Emi Martinez, Ezri Konsa and Watkins have all now returned from their extended summer breaks following their international exploits but Bilbao will come too soon for all three.
Aston Villa predicted line-up against Athletic Bilbao
With just two games remaining ahead of West Ham, the Villa side against Bilbao is likely to closely resemble the side that lines up in the Premier League opener; albeit without the aforementioned returning international trio.
In Martinez’ absence, Joe Gauci should continue to deputise in goal on Wednesday night.
Ahead of him, Kosta Nedeljkovic could be given another chance to impress at right-back after a decent pre-season, with Ian Maatsen on the opposite side of the defence at left-back.
Pau Torres has had a number of different centre-back partners this summer but Diego Carlos should return after his bizarre sending off against RB Leipzig.
Amadou Onana will play in the centre of midfield and Ross Barkley may well be given another opportunity to prove he should partner the Belgian.
Ahead of those two, Morgan Rogers, John McGinn and Leon Bailey should line up behind Cameron Archer due to the late return of Watkins and the situation regarding Jhon Duran meaning he is the only natural centre-forward option.
With that in mind, here is how we predict Aston Villa will line up against Athletic Bilbao at 7:30pm BST on Wednesday night.
Aston Villa (4-2-3-1): Gauci; Nedeljkovic, Carlos, Torres, Maatsen; Onana, Barkley; Bailey, McGinn, Rogers; Archer
