Unai Emery makes clever Jacob Ramsey call as Aston Villa starting XI emerges v Man Utd
Unai Emery has delivered a stroke of genius with his team selection for the clash between Aston Villa and Manchester United, with Jacob Ramsey returning to the starting XI.
Emery’s side are looking to bounce back from their poor FA Cup exit at the hands of Chelsea after Mauricio Pochettino’s side managed to book their place in the fifth round with a 3-1 win at Villa Park.
Despite that disappointing cup outing, Villa have been flying in the Premier League and it was only a matter of days ago that they put five unanswered goals past Sheffield United to boost their hopes of Champions League football.
To help them in their clash with United, Emery has opted to axe Youri Tielemans and start Ramsey in his place after the 22-year-old impressed from the bench in Wednesday (8 February) night’s clash.
Ramsey only played 22 minutes, but in that time he completed 90 per cent of his attempted passes and even managed to pick up an assist for Moussa Diaby’s late consolation strike with a perfectly weighted pass, according to stats via Fotmob.
Against Sheffield United, the Aston Villa man also impressed in his 45 minutes of action as he played three balls into the opposition’s final third, while also contributing defensively as he won a whopping four ground duels.
Tielemans on the other hand was incredibly poor against Chelsea. The Belgian only completed 12 passes in his 71 minutes of action at a miserable rate of 60 per cent. With those efforts, he only managed to create one chance for his teammates.
Defensively, the 26-year-old lost 100 per cent of his tackles and only won 50 per cent of his duels as Chelsea’s midfield ran riot at Aston Villa.
Axing him could be an incredibly sensible decision from Emery, especially if Ramsey is able to add to his single-goal contribution so far this season.
Aston Villa have to bounce back under Unai Emery
The FA Cup exit at the hands of Chelsea will be quickly forgotten if Villa are able to bounce back with three points against Manchester United at Villa Park.
Emery’s side have shown that they can go toe-to-toe with the Red Devils already this season, this time out they just have to demonstrate the cutting edge to see the game out and claim all three points.
A win on Sunday will ensure that the feel-good feeling will return to Aston Villa and help prepare Emery’s side for a big push in the second half of the season.
In other Aston Villa news, Alan Hutton has suggested that one Villa star has already played his final game under Emery
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