Leeds United v Aston Villa: predicted line-up, team news and match preview
Aston Villa resume their Premier League campaign with a Sunday afternoon visit to Elland Road to take on newly promoted Leeds United.
Villa arrived at the international break on a high, beating AFC Bournemouth 4-0 at Villa Park in the last game before the squad headed off to join their national teams.
Manager Unai Emery now faces the challenge of keeping Villa’s improved league form going in the run-up to a busy Christmas period, starting with a tricky trip to West Yorkshire to face Leeds.
Villa’s recent history with Leeds
Villa and Leeds have played in some pretty spicy matches in recent years, though the Yorkshire side’s latest stint in the Championship has limited their meetings.
There have been six games against Leeds since Villa were promoted in 2019 and the only defeat was in the first one, an utterly dreadful 3-0 loss at an empty Villa Park courtesy of a Patrick Bamford hat-trick in October 2020.
Since then, Villa have won three and drawn two. In all, they’ve lost three of the 12 fixtures since Leeds’ infamous relegation from the Premier League in 2004.
The last goal Villa conceded at Elland Road was a notable one. The three previous away fixtures were 1-0 and 3-0 wins and a 0-0 draw last time around. Before that, it was a 1-1 draw in the Championship in April 2019.
Mateusz Klich was the Leeds scorer, Tyler Roberts the dastardly creator and Marcelo Bielsa the manager. Anwar El Ghazi was sent off when Bamford cheated in the fiery aftermath and Albert Adomah was allowed to walk in an equaliser by everyone but Pontus Jansson.
Villa were promoted a month later.
Villa team news
Emery hasn’t given his pre-match press conference yet so there will surely be updates to come. Villa went into the November international break with only long-termers Tyrone Mings and Andrés García on the injury list but there were some developments while players were on international duty.
Ezri Konsa sat out England’s second and final World Cup qualifier in Albania on Sunday but there’s been no real suggestion thus far of an injury that’s likely to make him unavailable against Leeds.
Matty Cash and Amadou Onana both returned early the Poland and and Belgium camps respectively. Like Konsa, it sounds like both players were subject to an abundance of caution rather than actually being injured.
Lamare Bogarde came back early from international duty with the Netherlands Under-21s after picking up a knock, according to reports.
Villa predicted line-up v Leeds
While Onana’s fitness doesn’t sound too problematic at this stage, it does open the door for Emery to solve one particular selection problem: Youri Tielemans is back.
The Belgium captain is among Villa’s most important players but the midfield performances of Onana and Boubacar Kamara before the break made them both difficult to omit.
Emery, if he shares Belgium’s caution over Onana, could reinstate Tielemans alongside Kamara in the middle of the park.
That would leave captain John McGinn to be involved further forward but I’d expect Villa to be largely unchanged otherwise, with Cash and Konsa both in the starting eleven.
Where to watch Leeds v Villa
Villa’s away game against Leeds United will be broadcast live on Sky Sports Premier League in the UK.
Read more ➡️ How to watch Leeds United v Aston Villa: kick-off time, TV channels and streams
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