Changes expected as Aston Villa look to pour misery on sorry Saints
Unai Emery is again expected to make major changes when Villa head to Southampton on Saturday aiming to maintain the pace in the race for Champions League football.
Villa visit the already-relegated Saints targeting a fourth consecutive league win and keep the pressure on their rivals in the race for a top-five finish.
Arsenal’s win over Real Madrid on Tuesday secured the Premier League an extra place in next season’s Champions League and Emery’s men, who currently sit seventh, are firmly in the battle.
Saturday’s match, against a Saints team whose relegation was confirmed with last weekend’s defeat at Tottenham, is comfortably the easiest of their seven remaining games.
Villa’s following three fixtures see them take on Newcastle, Manchester City and Fulham, three of their rivals in the Champions League race and Emery knows they cannot afford to slip-up heading into a run which will define their Premier League campaign.
That won’t prevent the boss from making changes as he looks to keep his players fresh as possible, looking toward next Tuesday’s Champions League quarter-final second leg with Paris Saint-Germain.
Emery made eight changes for last weekend’s 2-1 win over Nottingham Forest, before making the same number again for Wednesday night’s first leg in Paris.
A similar shake-up is expected at St Mary’s Stadium with Tyrone Mings, Ian Maatsen and Amadou Onana among those set to start.
Donyell Malen, who has scored in each of his last two Premier League appearances, is back available after being ineligible for the midweek trip to Paris, along with right-back Andres Garcia. Winger Leon Bailey is the only injury concern, with Emery’s squad the healthiest it has been all season after a campaign where several players have had multiple spells on the sidelines.
Villa will be huge favourites, whatever the make-up of the starting XI, against a Southampton team which became the earliest ever to be relegated from the Premier League.
The Saints, rock bottom of the table, need a point from their remaining seven matches to avoid breaking Derby’s record for the lowest-ever top flight points total.
Simon Rusk has been appointed interim boss for the second time this season after Ivan Juric, who replaced Russell Martin in December, was sacked after the defeat at Spurs.
Southampton’s sole home Premier League win was a 1-0 triumph over Everton in early November, though they did draw 1-1 with Crystal Palace last time out.
