Aston Villa face potential February fixture hell after Champions League blow

Tuesday night’s 1-0 defeat in Monaco means Unai Emery’s team must beat Celtic next Wednesday and hope other results go their way to claim a top-eight finish and progress straight through to the last-16.

Otherwise they will head into a two-legged play-off round which would create major fixture congestion for the Spaniard and his injury-hit squad.

Villa host Tottenham in the FA Cup on Sunday, February 9, with the first leg of the Champions League play-off round scheduled for the following midweek.

Emery’s men then welcome Ipswich in the Premier League on Saturday, February 15 with the second leg of the play-off round coming just a few days later, ahead of further domestic fixtures with Chelsea on February 22 and Crystal Palace on February 25.

Avoiding the play-off round would allow Villa a full week’s rest before the Ipswich and Chelsea fixtures but fate is now out of their own hands after losing in Monaco.

They had gone to the Mediterranean sat fifth in the table having won four of their first six group stage matches, with Emery declaring Tuesday’s game a huge opportunity to cement their place in the top-eight.

But they failed to grasp it, going down to Wilfried Singo’s eighth-minute header in a low-key affair which led to the boss questioning the mentality of some of his players.

Emery will hope to have skipper John McGinn back for the crunch clash with Celtic but Ross Barkley remains sidelined with a calf injury, while the absence of Amadou Onana to a hamstring issue further added to the shortage of midfield options in Monaco. Villa are also low on numbers in defender with Pau Torres out until March with a broken foot and Diego Carlos close to joining Fenerbahce.

The match in Monaco was Villa’s third away from home in the space of six days but Emery dismissed suggestions tiredness might have been a factor in their below-par performance, instead claiming he made a tactical blunder by pairing Jhon Duran and Ollie Watkins together in the second half.

“It is not because the players were tired, it is because I decided to play with two strikers,” he said.

“With some two strikers we are not being organised with our positioning like I want. We didn’t work well tactically those 20 minutes rather than being tired.”