Aston Villa are looking to make it six unbeaten in London when they clash with Brentford on Sunday afternoon.
Unai Emery’s side have sent out a real statement of intent in recent weeks after recording back-to-back victories over Manchester City and Arsenal.
It’s moved Aston Villa into third position in the table, two points behind leaders Liverpool, and ensured they’ll spend Christmas inside the top five.
Whilst Emery’s troops are riding on a crest, the trip to West London is proving to be a real test of their squad depth.
Aston Villa injury news
With four of the players who started in the wins over Man City and Arsenal all potentially absent, several changes will be in the offing.
Two players who are definitely unavailable are Douglas Luiz and Lucas Digne after they picked up their fifth yellow cards of the season in the win over the Gunners.
Meanwhile, Emery could be without midfielder Youri Tielemans and attacker Leon Bailey, who were both brought off early in that fixture and missed the trip to Zrinjski Mostar on Thursday night.
Bailey, in particular, has been in exceptional form in recent weeks.
The Jamaican tormented Man City all evening, scoring a special winning goal, and then followed that up with the assist for John McGinn’s goal in the win over Arsenal.
Given how integral he’s been in Villa’s attack in recent weeks, doubts over whether he’ll feature are concerning, but Moussa Diaby can more than make up for the void he’d leave behind.
Moussa Diaby can torment Brentford’s defence
In their two most recent victories in the Premier League, Diaby has missed out due to a change in system with Emery admitting that his omission from the squad was purely tactical.
The Spaniard wanted more control in the midfield areas against two of the league’s best sides and therefore deployed Tielemans in behind the explosive Ollie Watkins, with Bailey slotting in on the right flank.
Against Brentford, however, Villa will anticipate having a greater percentage of the ball and can afford to go more attacking by throwing Diaby into the starting XI.
The Frenchman has been sensational since arriving from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer and after being hailed as “fantastic” by his manager in the win over Arsenal, deserves to start on Sunday.
This is demonstrated by his incredible attacking metrics in the Premier League this term, ranking in the top 2% against his positional peers for progressive carries, top 11% for progressive passes and top 2% for expected assist goals, as per FBref.
As such, the 24-year-old, who was lauded as “quality” by Peter Crouch in the win over Legia Warsaw, can offer an added dimension to the Villa attack if Bailey is absent while improving on his tally of three goals and four assists this season.
