Midfielder Amadou Onana could return for Aston Villa for their trip to face Chelsea on Sunday.
The Belgian missed last weekend’s 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace and a stalemate with Juventus on Wednesday but is contention to bolster Villa’s midfield as Stamford Bridge.
Villa boss Unai Emery is hopeful the 23-year-old will be available but says Jacob Ramsey will remain sidelined after a hamstring injury against Liverpool before the international break.
“The last match we were without [Amadou] Onana and [Jacob] Ramsey”, the Spaniard said.
“Ramsey of course is going to remain out but Onana it depends how he is progressing and tomorrow whether he can train or not. We will see.”
The Boss on Sunday’s challenge: “Now, we are going to face Chelsea, of course difficult. Of course, those three points will be very important, how we can set again our position in the table. pic.twitter.com/YvvnsLitSA
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) November 29, 2024
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Emery aiming for more success at Chelsea
Villa are searching for their third consecutive Premier League win at Stamford Bridge under Emery after 2-0 and 1-0 victories in the last season, as well as a 0-0 draw in the FA Cup fourth round last season.
But Emery warned his side, who are winless in seven games, that Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea are a different prospect to previous years with the Blues currently third in the Premier League.
The 53-year-old sai: “We are Aston Villa, we are in our process. We are more or less getting our high demands but to be consistent is the next challenge.
“We’ve won two times and we’ve drawn in the cup but now it is a different match. A different match, different players and different coach of them.
“They are feeling comfortable, they are performing consistently and getting better and the challenge is this Sunday.”
“We want to fight to be competing that are contending for the top 7. At the moment, we were better one month ago but still the possibility is to be there.”
Emery ‘very happy’ with midfield options
Emery is close to having his full compliment of midfielders to choose from with Boubacar Kamara increasing his minutes in recent games after returning from a long-term injury last month.
And the Basque coach says he is delighted with the options he has to choose from, which alongside Kamara and Onana include Youri Tielemans and Ross Barkley.
The Villa boss added: “Of course Kamara is getting better and he was not available one match before but after he played on Wednesday, he played feeling comfortable.
“I decided to reduce the last 20 minutes maybe because he needs minutes but we need to be careful.
“There is four days difference between one match and another but if he comes in tomorrow well – in my head I want to use my better players on Sunday and one of them is Kamara of course.
“The midfield I have now with Kamara, Onana, Barkley and Tielemans – I am happy, very happy. I want the players competing with each other in every position but just in the middle we have players that we can be happy with.”
