Aston Villa suffer two new injuries before Crystal Palace clash

Aston Villa have two fresh injury concerns to consider following Saturday’s 2-1 victory over Chelsea.

Marco Asensio scored twice and Marcus Rashford notched two assists in what was a pivotal win at Villa Park but the three points came at a cost as Morgan Rogers and Tyrone Mings both hobbled off and are now doubts for Tuesday’s trip to Crystal Palace.

Mings felt pain in his knee at the start of the second half and carried on for about 15 minutes but was struggling to sprint and had to be replaced by Lamare Bogarde. Rogers, meanwhile, requested a substitution after picking up a knock as a result of a kick from a Chelsea player. The attacking midfielder was just growing into the game as Villa were pushing for a winner, however his race was run as he limped off with a grimace.

Rogers has started all 10 of Villa’s games in the last 43 days, only being substituted on three occasions – all after the 70th minute. The schedule has been absolutely brutal for Villa and Rogers has unfortunately come a cropper in the midst of it, although admittedly not as a direct result of the fatigue itself.

“Of course, Morgan he’s playing a lot of minutes because as well physically he can get performing it, but today he had a kick and he was asking me to replace him,” Emery said during Saturday’s post-match press conference.

“Hopefully it’s not for a long time, hopefully he can play on Tuesday in Palace but we changed him for another player and performed well,” Emery added.

Players can often recover from impact injuries in merely a couple of days so there’s no wonder Emery is hopeful Rogers won’t miss any action. Villa will conduct all the necessary precautions before the trip to Palace, though, and are unlikely to take any undue risks.

Villa reaping rewards of busy transfer window

The good news is Villa now have such excellent depth in attack following the winter acquisitions of Rashford, Asensio and Donyell Malen. The likes of Jacob Ramsey, Leon Bailey John McGinn already provided Emery with the odd dilemma but the head coach is now spoilt for choice.

Malen has shown signs of promise with his movement in behind and near misses but Asensio and Rashford really stepped up for Villa against Chelsea. Asensio scored twice - his first goals in claret and blue - while Rashford assisted both strikes to earn a huge three points in the Champions League fight.

Had Villa lost the game, Chelsea would’ve extended their advantage to seven points and qualification for Europe’s elite competition would have felt like it was drifting away. It’s quite the opposite feeling following Saturday’s inspired comeback, however, with Villa now just one point behind both Chelsea and one outside the top five.

The Villans still have to travel away to Manchester City but have already faced Liverpool, Arsenal and Nottingham Forest twice. The end of the season is looking promising if Emery’s men can build some momentum.