Aston Villa are on the road again this evening with a midweek Premier League clash in the capital against Fulham at Craven Cottage.
The Villans’ previous game saw a brace from Mason Mount secure a 2-0 win for Chelsea at Villa Park last weekend.
Looking ahead to tonight’s showdown on the Thames, here’s our prediction for the starting XI that Steven Gerrard could pick to take on Marco Silva’s side.
In goal, despite misjudging Mount’s free-kick goal on Sunday, we think that Emi Martinez will keep his place in the team.
Moving on to the defence, we predict that Matty Cash will start on the right with Ashley Young on the left for the two full-back roles.
Then for the two centre-back positions, we think that Ezri Konsa will start but also that Gerrard will make a big decision and take Tyrone Mings out of the team after his mistake, which was described as “awful” by Nizaar Kinsella, led to Mount’s opening goal of the game against Chelsea.
We, therefore, predict that Calum Chambers will be given a chance to impress against the club that he spent the 2018/19 season on loan with.
Looking at the midfield, we think that Gerrard will stick with the same trio that started against Chelsea, namely, John McGinn, Douglas Luiz and Jacob Ramsey.
Then for the three attacking positions, we can see Leon Bailey starting on the right wing, with Danny Ings keeping his place in the centre-forward role.
Finally, after being deployed on the left-wing last weekend, we predict that Gerrard will take Ollie Watkins out of the team and replace him with Philippe Coutinho to see if the £150k-per-week attacker can have more of an attacking impact against the Cottagers.
Whether Gerrard goes with this suggested starting XI or not, a win against Fulham is just what the manager needs to relieve some of the pressure that his on him as a result of Villa’s rocky results so far this season.
