And We’re Back: Fulham vs Aston Villa

Another international break has come and gone, and judging from Villa’s starting XI and bench, it seems to have come at a good time. A number of players have, one hopes, gotten over various knocks, or at least made reasonably decent progress.

For example, returning to action today at Craven Cottage are Jacob Ramsey and Amadou Onana. Ezri Konsa, Jaden Philogene and John McGinn all make the bench. Good news. But the big surprise is Boubacar Kamara. That’s obviously very good news, while also pointing to the long road faced by Tyrone Mings.

And really, apart from what we’d consider dropped points against Ipswich and probably a slightly disappointing draw against United, it was the piling up of injuries that was most concerning in the opening stretch. That none of them were particularly serious is a blessing, and let Villa get back to using their full squad relatively quickly. I’m sure we all had shades of foreboding after last year’s closing stretch with a threadbare squad.

Feel like I say this every time, but Fulham won’t be an easy day by any means. They’ve had a fine start and sit three behind us. Villa would dearly love to not only expand that gap, but keep pace with the top contenders. So. We’re back and fingers crossed.

Over to you.