Aston Villa told injury crisis is no excuse for their defensive woes as Unai Emery mulls another change

The Spaniard may be forced to play the ELEVENTH different central defensive pairing of Villa’s season against Chelsea on Saturday should Ezri Konsa not be deemed ready to return from injury.

With loanee Axel Disasi unable to play against his parent club, youngster Lamare Bogarde is primed to partner Tyrone Mings at the back if required.

Emery acknowledges constant chopping and changing at the back has not helped his team but warned Villa’s defensive record must improve, if they are to stand any chance of chasing down the Champions League places.

Villa have only kept three Premier League clean sheets this season, with only six teams conceding more goals.

Emery said: “We are watching and analysing other teams and more or less they have the same problem. They are having a lot of injured players.

“The most important thing is we are not having injured players for a long time. 

“OK, maybe two months is a long time but it is not a year like last season with (Boubacar) Kamara, Mings and (Emi) Buendia. 

“Always I accept injured players and of course we are analysing why and how we can improve it. 

“As a coach, I know it. I have to react, I have to be positive and work with the players, to be ready when we have injuries like now. 

“For tomorrow we have enough players to be ready and compete, even with Lamare Bogarde in the starting XI I am positive because he is performing well.”

Villa have struggled for numbers at the back all season with Konsa, Mings, Pau Torres and Diego Carlos, the latter of whom was sold to Fenerbahce last month, all spending time on the sidelines.

Emery hopes to have Torres back available in the next two to three weeks as he nears a return from a broken foot. Midfielder Kamara, who was injured while deputising at centre-back, is also expected back in the same timeframe along with record signing Amadou Onana.

“We had a lot of different circumstances that didn't help us this season to be as strong as possible defensively,” said Emery. 

"We didn't have this opportunity for consistency at different moments in the season, starting with Diego Carlos, then Tyrone Mings was coming back late after his injury.

"Pau Torres was injured as well more or less one and a half months ago.

"We signed Disasi and he is still getting to know us. He is performing progressively better but he's only been here for a few days and has only played two matches.

"But we have the challenge for now and for the future. We will improve defensively if we want to get our objective.”