Aston Villa welcome Brentford to Villa Park when they return to Premier League action on Sunday afternoon.
Villa are four points off the top of the Premier League and looking to continue an exemplary record in matches immediately after European games.
Manager Unai Emery knows the Europa League inside-out and has turned winning the subsequent league matches into an art form too, but Villa know all about their next league opponents and certainly won’t be taking them lightly.
Brentford have produced some impressive results this season, not least when one considers the personnel they lost in the summer transfer window.
Yes, we were all banging on about Thomas Frank, Bryan Mbeumo, Yoane Wissa and Christian Nørgaard like they were going to be impossible to replace in one go. And, yes, perhaps we underestimated Keith Andrews and his team as a result, but I maintain my doubts were based on how good those players had been.
Underestimation wasn’t the issue when Villa were beaten at Brentford in the first away game of the league season and then on penalties in the third round of the Carabao Cup. The Bees have proved loads of us wrong this season but there’s no denying they caught Villa cold too.
Emery took his team to the Gtech Community Stadium twice in the first five matches, losing 1-0 in the Premier League in the second of a four-match goalless run to kick off the campaign.
Harvey Elliott scored Villa’s first goal of 2025-26 in a 1-1 draw at Brentford in the Carabao Cup, a tie they lost on penalties. Those visits to west London became emblematic of a bad start but we know now that they were not representative of Villa in the slightest.
Back then, it would have been surprising to learn that Sunday’s fixture would be between third and eighth. Brentford have slipped out of what’s likely to be the fifth Champions League spot in the last couple of weeks, losing to Chelsea and Nottingham Forest in their last two games.
They’ve been beaten eight times away from home in the Premier League but we know first-hand that they have the tools to trouble Villa with a fair wind.
Emery knows he’ll be without Boubacar Kamara for the rest of the season, while fellow midfielders Youri Tielemans and John McGinn are expected to be out for slightly more and slightly less than two months respectively.
Right-back Andrés García and winger Alysson have both been ruled out of the Brentford match with more minor injuries but Ross Barkley could be included. The midfielder is expected to return imminently.
Villa are sweating over the fitness of former Brentford striker Ollie Watkins, who went off during the first half of Thursday’s Europa League win over Red Bull Salzburg. He will be assessed before Villa face his old club, but Emery seems relatively confident it’s not a long-term issue.
That could open the door for new signing Tammy Abraham to start up front rather sooner than planned. He and midfield loanee Douglas Luiz are both available against the Bees.
Judging by Villa’s recent transfer history, I’m guessing Watkins won’t be ready to face Brentford and Abraham will indeed be given his second Villa debut more than seven years after the first.
Keeping Luiz on the bench feels like a more typical Emery choice. I don’t think it’ll be long before he’s in the team but I reckon Villa will keep faith with Lamare Bogarde for this one.
Elsewhere, the exit of Evann Guessand means that the right-sided forward spot now has a clear candidate in Jadon Sancho.
I expect Emery to revert to what I think is his preferred trio off the striker without McGinn and indeed to his favoured back four, reunited after significant changes to the defence in midweek.
Villa’s home game against Brentford will be broadcast live on Sky Sports Premier League in the UK.
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