Referee: Simon Hooper
Assistants: Adrian Holmes, Tim Wood
Fourth official: Tim Robinson
VAR: Chris Kavanagh
Assistant VAR: Mark Scholes
The penultimate match of Jurgen's reign sees us go to Villa Park. They may, but most likely won't quite have guaranteed CL football (Tottenham are at home to Burnley on Saturday), so we must be ready to compete if we want anything from this game.
I know that we'll end third no matter what, but no one wants to see us do anything but play to win.
We will have the advantage that they will have played in Greece on Thursday night, but this is slightly negated by the match being on Monday night. However we'll have had a full week to focus on this game, while they'll be going to Greece to fight for a place in the Europa Conference Final, despite being 2-4 down. They'll expend a lot of effort there no matter the result.
Sunday's performance against Spurs was a bit more like it. A lot more like it until we were 4-0 up, before this seasons familiar failings saw complacency creep in after a couple of substitutions, and we conceded two quick goals. We were back in control largely by the end, unlucky to not make it 5-2 with a close offside. Earlier in the season when we made Subs they were impacting the game immediately and positively, often helping us to win those games. More recently they've seemed to interrupt our rhythm and take time for us to recover from, not sure why this has changed but it's probably just another symptom of our drop in form across the squad.
That said, there were a number of positives besides the result. Elliott's continued great form, capping a MOTM display with a cracking goal. Gakpo is another who has really come to life in the last month or so. Mo looked a bit more like his usual self, and most exciting in my view was the return of Bajcetic. Understandably rusty initially, I thought he grew into the game and showed some classy touches and intelligent play. I hope we see him again here as he builds back to full fitness, a very exciting prospect.
At the time of writing Villa have lost their last 2 games, and a tough away in Olympiacos where very few win, means it could be three without a win come kick off on Monday night. I think it's fair to say whatever happens in Greece they've had a hell of a season with Emery doing a very good job of getting them playing good football, including impressive wins over the current top two. They have deservedly put themselves in pole position for 4th spot and won't want to lose it in the final weeks of the season, so as mentioned before we will need to be ready to fight as they will be.
Unsure whether Jota will be back for this at the time of writing, but it would be an added bonus to get him back on the bench. However in summary I think this game may just be falling at the right time for us and as long as we compete with them we'll wear them down for the win. Keep the positive finish to the season going into the final match for Jurgen.
