Creative sparks set to get chance with Aston Villa starts

Smith is set to ring the changes when Villa head to Stamford Bridge for a Carabao Cup third round tie.

As is typically the case at this stage of the competition, Smith’s challenge is to balance a desire to win the match with the need to give players on the fringes of the first-team playing time.

Traore, who came off the bench in the 3-0 Premier League defeat at Chelsea earlier this month, is poised to make his first start of the season after missing the opening weeks of the campaign with a hamstring injury.

Record signing Buendia, meanwhile, will return to the line-up for the first time this month. The £33million man was away from the club for nearly three weeks while on international duty with Argentina and has not featured in Villa’s last two matches.

Buendia missed the loss at Stamford Bridge while training in Croatia, in order to avoid hotel quarantine, before being an unused substitute in Saturday’s 3-0 win over Everton having only arrived back in the UK hours before kick-off.

Leon Bailey, who bagged his first Villa goal against the Toffees, is unlikely to be risked as he nurses a thigh problem, while John McGinn is expected to miss out after sustaining a concussion in the weekend’s win.

Smith said: “We’ll have to make some changes.

“We’ve got some players who need game time, some very good players. We’ve got a deep squad now and it’s a chance to give some of those players some more minutes after a hindered pre-season.

“But they’re ready to get minutes and make sure that, first of all, we try and progress in this competition, which is what we want to do, make it a really competitive game, but also get them ready as well for the season ahead that we’ve got a lot more games in.

“We’ve got the likes of Bertrand Traore, who’s coming back from injury, Emi Buendía, who’s come back from international duty, and haven’t got on the pitch (against Everton). Bert obviously got on for the last five minutes.

“So we’ve got players like that now who can go and play in this game and get some well-earned minutes.”

Axel Tuanzebe is likely to start in defence with the centre-back unable to feature in Saturday’s Premier League visit to his parent club Manchester United, while Kortney Hause should make his first appearance since the 6-0 second round win at Barrow.

Anwar El Ghazi, who scored twice in that game, should also start. Perhaps the biggest question facing Smith is whether to hand Villa’s hat-trick hero from the last round, 20-year-old Cameron Archer, a second career start. Teenager Lamare Bogarde could make the bench.