Unai Emery to make four changes to Aston Villa starting XI v Hibernian
We’re delighted to welcome former Aston Villa full-back Alan Hutton as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at Villa Park…
Alan Hutton expects Unai Emery to make a small number of changes to the Aston Villa starting line-up when they welcome Hibernian to B6 on Thursday.
Emery’s men have as good as qualified for the Europa Conference League group stages already after winning 5-0 away at Easter Road last week.
Ollie Watkins bagged a hat-trick while Leon Bailey and Douglas Luiz were also on the scoresheet in Edinburgh.
Villa play Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday (3 September) and Hutton believes that while Emery won’t completely overhaul his starting line-up to play Hibs in the second leg of the Conference League play-offs, he does see the Spaniard giving a handful of fringe players the chance to shine.
Speaking to Villa News, Hutton said: “I think Emery will make changes.
“I don’t think he’ll make wholesale changes because I don’t think he’ll want to disrespect the tournament or Hibs or anything by doing that.
“But yes, there’s an opportunity for him to change three of four players to give some a rest.
“They play Liverpool next, which is a huge game. Emery may also have one eye on that so he may use this game [against Hibs] to give minutes to players who haven’t played much so far this season.
“It would be a good opportunity to rotate due to being five goals up.”
In other Aston Villa news, an imminent multi-million exit from Villa Park has caused uproar.