(Credit: Imago)

Jacob Raw

Mon 30 March 2026 17:10, UK

Aston Villa‘s return to league action will be interesting with Unai Emery having to make a decision over who to start out of Youri Tielemans and Ross Barkley.

Amadou Onana is a regular starter at Villa Park, and with Boubacar Kamara injured, he needs a consistent partner in midfield.

Tielemans has had his injury struggles of late, and a return to fitness seen him earn a call-up to Belgium’s squad for the international break.

However, the 28-year-old’s blunder in his county’s 5-2 win against the USA may have shown Emery that he’s not quite ready to start in Premier League games yet.

Barkley has taken his chance recently and is currently showing signs of a consistent midfield partnership with Onana.

Ross Barkley has done enough to keep starting spot

Villa fans were shocked to see Tielemans’ error, and it may showcase an underlying issue of the repercussions sustained from his injury problems.

In light of Aston Villa’s midfield setbacks, Barkley has stepped up to the task and is showing that he can be trusted in the fight for Champions League football.

As highlighted in the table above, the Englishman has an average Sofascore rating of 7.02, and boasts an 88 per cent pass rate from his 14 appearances this season.

He can also do the dirty side of the game well, and proves this through his 59 per cent duel success ratio.

Some would argue that he’s been unlucky not to have been given a more important role in the squad until now, and there’s no reason why he shouldn’t start, especially if Tielemans is out of sorts.

Villa’s first game back after the break is a Europa League clash against Bologna, but in some ways, the Premier League game against Nottingham Forest is even more important.

Youri Tielemans on track for lowest-ever Villa tally

Tielemans has played 23 times for Villa in all competitions this campaign, and is on track for his lowest-ever appearance tally with the club.

Last season, he managed 53 games, while also making 15 goal contributions, but he only has six so far.

As highlighted by Sofascore, Tielemans still has an average 7.19 rating in the league, and holds a tremendous 75 per cent dribble success rate.

He makes 2.09 tackles per game while also performing 1.61 key passes every 90 minutes, which proves the dilemma Emery has.

Villa need Tielemans at his best, and to do that, he may need to be kept out of the side until he gets back to absolute full fitness.