It’s the battle of the two sides suffering from multiple injury blows as Aston Villa return from the international break to host Crystal Palace.
The break was used as a period of reflection for Unai Emery, who has worked hard on the training ground this week to correct their poor recent run of results.
Ahead of a busy festive period, Emery wanted all of his international stars fit and raring to go however, what occurred was a series of injuries to some of his key players.
Ezri Konsa suffered an injury on England duty and will now miss the clash against Palace while midfielder Amadou Onana is also ruled out with a foot injury.
Onana and Konsa join Boubacar Kamara and Jacob Ramsey on the physio bench with the visitors also going through a crisis of their own.
Eberechi Eze ruled out of Aston Villa vs Crystal Palace clash
In his pre-match press conference on Friday, Oliver Glasner revealed that Eddie Nketiah, Adam Wharton, Daichi Kamada, Matheus Franca and Eberechi Eze will miss the trip to Villa Park.
Eze’s absence comes as the most surprising, though. The 26-year-old first suffered a hamstring injury after scoring in the Carabao Cup win over Villa last month.
As a result, he missed England’s latest Nations League games against Greece and the Republic of Ireland along with Palace’s previous three top-flight fixtures.
It was reported by multiple outlets that Eze was set to return against Aston Villa but now, Glasner has left him out of the squad for this weekend, as he claims it would be too risky despite training this week.
“Ebs would like to be involved in tomorrow’s game, but I took the decision not to take him with us to Villa,” Glasner confirmed via Palace’s official website.
“It’s a little bit too risky. He trained during the week, but it’s too near when it happened. When we see our schedule, we have to protect our players.
“When we see our schedule after the Villa game, with eight games in December, we can’t take any risks, so that’s why Ebs is not involved in tomorrow’s game.”
Villa must be wary of Palace’s other dangermen
Eze was previously dubbed ‘unplayable’ by Ian Wright and he’s inarguably Glasner’s most influential player.
The Englishman’s absence is therefore massive, especially because he’s scored four times in this fixture, including a brace at the end of last season.
Of course, Eze being unavailable gives Emery one less talented player to worry about but the Eagles have plenty of other stars who can hurt Villa.
Jean-Philippe Mateta – who Villa were linked to previously – has scored three goals this term and could cause the hosts problems with his strength and movement in behind.
Glasner can also deploy the threat of Ismaila Sarr, who many will know for his incredible performances at Watford, as he aims to give Lucas Digne a nightmare time.
Palace may be 18th in the table but the hosts shouldn’t take them for granted, especially with the quality they have on the counter.
