Players are not interested in these international matches and you mark my words, there will be players on pitches this weekend all tanned up. And some could do that in the knowledge they were not going to get picked, but some feigned injury.
And quite a few have come back injured for many teams. Konsa and Onana have come back injured for us and they would have likely started today and on top of that we’ve got Ramsey and Kamara out too.
It’s not nice. That said, our squad is better this season than it has been for a long time. So while we might have three midfielders out, we’ve got Ross coming back and we have others that can naturally cover. It’s not that bad even if it’s not that great.
Things are better than they have been for years and we’re in a good place. Although I say that having just visited the table page on the BBC website and for the first time in a long time, I had to scroll. But three points today and we could be third.
So, it’s not so bad and it’s a great time to be an Aston Villa fan. But now, with no international breaks coming, it’s starting to get serious. After Palace, we’ve got Juventus at Villa Park and in December, we have eight fixtures. In January it’s six and from today, it’s 67 days to Celtic at Villa Park in the Champions League.
I’ve put those numbers in so I can write that that’s essentially a match every 4.1 days between now and the end of January. And that’s why I added in the title that this is the first business part of the season. These sixteen matches could very well define our season. And 12 of the 16 matches are Premier League.
I write all this to write that we’re three points from top four, but this where the sides that are going to finish in the top four are going to head in that direction for next season. It’s also where the sides that are not going to do well this season start to drop off. And we played eight last December but only four last January.
It’s getting serious now and it starts today. I’m heading to the shops, back later.
Match facts from the BBC
Head-to-head
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Aston Villa’s only defeat in 12 Premier League home matches against Crystal Palace came on Boxing Day 2013 (W7, D4). Villa have kept six clean sheets and never conceded more than once in any of those meetings.
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However, Palace won this fixture 5-0 at Selhurst Park on the final day of last season and triumphed 2-1 at Villa Park in the League Cup fourth round last month.
Aston Villa
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Unai Emery has suffered four consecutive defeats in all competitions for the first time in his 1,026 games as a manager.
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Villa can lose five matches in a row for the first time since October to November 2021, which led to Dean Smith being sacked.
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They could equal their longest Premier League losing streak of three games under Emery, set in February 2023.
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However, Villa are unbeaten in all seven Premier League fixtures this season against teams currently in the bottom half of the table (W4, D3).
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Their only clean sheet in 16 league matches came in a 0-0 home draw against Manchester United last month.
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Ollie Watkins has gone five club games without a goal and only scored once in his past eight appearances for Villa.
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Midfielder Boubacar Kamara celebrates his 25th birthday on the day of this fixture.
Crystal Palace
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The Eagles can remain winless after six Premier League away games of a season for the second time. It took them nine attempts to earn a first away victory in 2017-18.
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Palace’s tally of seven points from 11 matches is their third lowest at this stage of a Premier League season. They had four points in both 2013 and 2017.
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Oliver Glasner’s side have led for just 104 minutes in the league this season; only West Ham United have fared worse.
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Their solitary victory in the last 14 league fixtures without Eberechi Eze was by 3-0 at home to Burnley in February (D5, L8).
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Jean-Philippe Mateta has 16 goals in 24 Premier League appearances under Glasner, including a hat-trick against Aston Villa on the final day of last season. Only two of those goals were scored in away games.
