Aston Villa host Liverpool on Monday night hoping to secure a win that will seal Champions League qualification for next season. It's been a difficult few weeks for Unai Emery and the players, as with our never-ending injury problems, our squad has been stretched amid key absentees as we've started to show signs of fatigue with those available having to take on a heavy workload after an already gruelling campaign.
That in turn has led to our stuttering form in the Premier League while we exited the Europa Conference League in midweek, and instead of hoping for results elsewhere to go our way, it's desperately hoped that Villa can produce one last big shift this season to make fourth place safe.
It remains to be seen who, if anyone, is able to recover in time to feature on Monday, but Emery will certainly be hoping for some positive news at least so he can add more quality and experience to our bench.
Villa team news vs Liverpool Long-term absentees Tyrone Mings, Emiliano Buendia, Boubacar Kamara and Jacob Ramsey all remain sidelined, albeit Buendia did travel with the squad to Greece this week having returned to group training.
Given his lengthy absence and inability to feature at all so far this season though, it seems unlikely that he'll be able to make the bench and get minutes in such a high-pressure scenario.
Emiliano Martinez returned last time out from his own injury problem in an important boost, while the likes of Youri Tielemans, Nicolo Zaniolo and Alex Moreno may well need to pass a late fitness test to determine their availability. Morgan Rogers is also a doubt after sustaining a hamstring issue against Brighton, while Leon Bailey has been struggling with a knee problem in recent weeks and he'll hopefully get the green light to feature.
Predicted Villa XI vs Liverpool Assuming Martinez didn't suffer a fresh setback after playing against Olympiacos, the Argentine shot-stopper will hopefully remain between the posts, with an unchanged backline of Ezri Konsa, Diego Carlos, Pau Torres and Lucas Digne in front of him.
That's based on the likelihood that Matty Cash may well need to be deployed in a more advanced role on the right side again given our unavailable midfielders, with Leon Bailey perhaps switching flanks with John McGinn and Douglas Luiz continuing in the middle.
That in turn will see Moussa Diaby support Ollie Watkins in the final third, and the expectation is that we'll have bench filled with our inexperienced youngsters again as they look to get minutes in the latter stages and hopefully help us see out a win.
Naturally, it's hoped that there is positive news when it comes to potential returns from injury, as we could certainly do with the numbers and giving Emery the ability to rotate and tweak things tactically if necessary.
However, the Villa boss has instilled a no-excuse mentality at the club since he arrived, and if he has to go with the same group as in midweek, both he and the players will give it everything to try and get us over the line to achieve a major objective this season.
Given the quality that Liverpool possess and the added impact of Jurgen Klopp's reign coming to an end, we'll face another difficult challenge at Villa Park, That said, we've hopefully got one last big shift in us this season to end the drama and concern early and book our spot at Europe's top table for next season.
Predicted Aston Villa XI vs Liverpool: Martinez; Konsa, Diego Carlos, Pau, Digne; Cash, McGinn, Douglas Luiz, Bailey; Diaby, Watkins.