Aston Villa team news as Unai Emery benches Harvey Elliott against Sunderland

Aston Villa are on Wearside for the fifth Premier League match of the season, desperate for a first goal and first win of 2025/26.

Villa manager Unai Emery isn’t under pressure exactly but there is pressure on him and his team to kickstart their season after what’s inexplicably becoming a historically bad start.

With two wins and two draws from their first four league matches, Villa finally scored a goal in the League Cup on Tuesday but the skies over Villa Park are darkening and the first win can’t come soon enough.

Sunderland isn’t really the place to go if you need to snap a streak. The Black Cats have won both of their fixtures at the Stadium of Light after they were promoted to the Premier League last season and will, rightly, smell claret and blue blood.

With three points the only really acceptable outcome, Emery has somehow come up with a starting line-up that’s even more bizarre than the one he named for the Everton game last weekend.

Emery drops Elliott and Sancho

The return of midfielder Boubacar Kamara means he slots into the midfield two along with captain John McGinn, with Lamare Bogarde on the bench.

Kamara came on as a substitute in the League Cup tie against Brentford but Youri Tielemans and Amadou Onana miss out again through injury.

The other change from the Everton fixture sees Evann Guessand come in for Tielemans, allowing McGinn to play in the middle from the start.

Villa’s lack of a goal with Ollie Watkins, Morgan Rogers and Emi Buendía in the side against Everton has been addressed by including Ollie Watkins, Morgan Rogers and Emi Buendía in the side against Sunderland

Guessand gets the nod ahead of Jadon Sancho, Donyell Malen and Harvey Elliott as Emery lays bare his willingness to laugh in the face of public opinion. Elliott not starting is a big surprise but perhaps it shouldn’t be at this point.

Let’s hope it works out this time. Once again, it’s the kind of line-up that can only be justified after the fact with a win. It’s bold in its conservatism. If it doesn’t pay off, the reaction will be very ugly indeed.

Villa team v Sunderland in full

Starting line-up: Martínez, Cash, Konsa, Mings, Digne, Kamara, McGinn, Guessand, Rogers, Buendía, Watkins

Substitutes: Bizot, Torres, Lindelöf, Maatsen, Bogarde, Jimoh-Aloba, Elliott, Sancho, Malen

 

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