Credit: Imago

James Barker

Tue 24 March 2026 19:40, UK

Aston Villa travel to Spain to play LaLiga side Elche in a friendly on Friday, and Eder Sarabia’s side will give the Villans a good game.

Confirmed earlier this week, Aston Villa will be using this March international break to go and test themselves against Spanish LaLiga opposition, Elche.

Villa are back in competitive action on 9 April, when they travel to Italy to take on Bologna in the quarter-finals of the Europa League.

However, Emery isn’t taking this break as an opportunity to let his players who aren’t away on international duty get some bonus time off.

Instead, Friday will see them jet out to Spain and play a friendly match behind closed doors against Elche, and the Spanish top flight outfit will provide a stern test for those Villa players involved.

How are Elche performing in LaLiga this season?

Villa beat West Ham 2-0 in the Premier League last time out, and are now on a run of form that reads three wins from their last four in all competitions.

As such, Emery has found a way to stop the relative rot at Villa Park, and now the confidence is flowing again that they’ll go on and comfortably secure a top four place this season.

Therefore, Villa fans and players would be forgiven for looking at the game against Elche, who sit 17th in LaLiga and just one point and place above the relegation zone, as being nothing more than a training exercise for them.

However, that’s not going to be the case at all, as their underlying numbers will tell you that Sarabia’s side are perhaps in somewhat of a false position.

As per Sofascore, only Barcelona (68.7 per cent) and Real Madrid (59.1 per cent) average more possession per match than Elche (58.4 per cent) do in LaLiga this season, and they’ll look to dictate the game.

They also average 11.2 shots on goal per game, which is a considerable amount for a relegation-threatened team, and have scored 38 goals this season.

That’s more than every single team above them in LaLiga until Real Sociedad in seventh, whilst their 46 conceded is only one more than Sociedad have shipped themselves respectively.

Villa have picked a friendly against Elche for a reason

Emery doesn’t do anything when it comes to his coaching and decision-making by accident.

If he wanted his Villa team to just enjoy a keep ball exercise, he would either just do that on the training ground or find a local Sunday league side to have a kick about with.

He certainly wouldn’t take his players to Spain mid-season and in the midst of a crucial top four run-in, and on the flip side of course, neither would Elche agree to this game if they didn’t want to get something out of it either.

Therefore, this is going to be a test for Villa, as Emery perhaps sees this as a prime opportunity to assess match fitness levels of some, and provide a proverbial shop window for other fringe players to make a case for some late first-team involvement.