ZHAKE
Two more Aston Villa players will visit the treatment room ahead of the trip to Crystal Palace.
Aston Villa have two fresh injury concerns to consider following Saturday’s 2-1 victory over Chelsea.
Marco Asensio scored twice and Marcus Rashford notched two assists in what was a pivotal win at Villa Park but the three points came at a cost as Morgan Rogers and Tyrone Mings both hobbled off and are now doubts for Tuesday’s trip to Crystal Palace.
Mings felt pain in his knee at the start of the second half and carried on for about 15 minutes but was struggling to sprint and had to be replaced by Lamare Bogarde. Rogers, meanwhile, requested a substitution after picking up a knock as a result of a kick from a Chelsea player. The attacking midfielder was just growing into the game as Villa were pushing for a winner, however his race was run as he limped off with a grimace.
“Of course, Morgan he’s playing a lot of minutes because as well physically he can get performing it, but today he had a kick and he was asking me to replace him,” Emery said during Saturday’s post-match press conference.
“Hopefully it’s not for a long time, hopefully he can play on Tuesday in Palace but we changed him for another player and performed well,” Emery added.
Players can often recover from impact injuries in merely a couple of days so there’s no wonder Emery is hopeful Rogers won’t miss any action. Villa will conduct all the necessary precautions before the trip to Palace, though, and are unlikely to take any undue risks.
The good news is Villa now have such excellent depth in attack following the winter acquisitions of Rashford, Asensio and Donyell Malen. The likes of Jacob Ramsey, Leon Bailey John McGinn already provided Emery with the odd dilemma but the head coach is now spoilt for choice.
ZHAKE
Qudus Salihu
