Unai Emery keeps his Aston Villa players on their toes. Sometimes he tells his squad the lineup the day before a game, on other occasions half an hour before they depart the team hotel for the stadium on a match day. Training tends to offer some clues but of late there have been surprises. Emery, a hugely emotional character, has been known to make impulsive, snap calls. Morgan Rogers, a rare mainstay and one of Villa’s trio of undroppables, recently described how his manager’s decision‑making can feel like flip‑of-the-coin stuff.
When the teamsheets are released an hour before kick-off at Wembley on Saturday, the eyeballs will jump towards the most intriguing selection dilemma: will Emery favour Marcus Rashford or Ollie Watkins?
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Rashford, who lifted the FA Cup with Manchester United last season, has started seven of Villa’s past nine matches, scoring four goals. Watkins has begun three games across the same period, scoring twice, including the opening goal in the victory against Newcastle to move him level with Gabriel Agbonlahor on a record 74 Premier League goals for Villa. Emery has suggested he wants to experiment further with pairing Rashford and Watkins in attack, though he has not done so since Villa progressed to the quarter-finals of the Champions League with victory against Club Brugge six weeks ago.
For Rashford, another start against Crystal Palace would be another big tick. His performance against Paris Saint-Germain at Villa Park, when he kickstarted the comeback that put PSG on the ropes and almost fuelled one of the great European shocks, was undoubtedly his best showing in a Villa shirt. There was the dart inside Willian Pacho and Marquinhos before he sprung a stinging right-foot shot at Gianluigi Donnarumma. He was involved in the intricate move that led to Villa’s first goal, scored by Youri Tielemans, but the moment when he pressed pause, zipped the ball past Fabián Ruiz and skipped past Vitinha before teeing up Ezri Konsa to strike was a flashback to yesteryear. There were more glimpses of that menace on Tuesday at the Etihad Stadium, where he rattled a post inside 17 seconds and converted a cool penalty to add to his scoring record against Manchester City.
Perhaps it should be no surprise Rashford’s impact has been gradual. When he arrived at Villa in February he was lacking match fitness having started two United matches in the previous two months. All parties recognised it was pointless putting him in at the deep end. The 27-year-old requested to train on his first days off and last month pitched up at the local Midland League Division One side Sutton United for an individual session with the coach Jamie Reynolds. But after easing him in as planned, Emery has been impressed. “I am so, so happy with him,” Emery said. “He’s performing very well. Keep going – now Saturday, hopefully, he can help us again.”
Emery has spoken about the smile that has returned to Rashford’s face at Villa. The pair are thought to have developed a good relationship and the forward was enthused about working with Emery after a friend and fellow player suggested the Spaniard was in the same bracket as Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsène Wenger as an elite manager.
Rashford, who gets on well with Konsa, Jacob Ramsey and Tyrone Mings, is thought to be living between Birmingham and his Cheshire base.
After the slew of winter-window arrivals, Emery held a team meeting in which he outlined the state of play in various competitions, with Villa still fighting on three fronts at the time. Rashford was the headline arrival, even with Marco Asensio coming on loan from PSG. Axel Disasi signed from Chelsea, and Donyell Malen and Andrés García joined permanently. The other thing Emery made clear was that because there was more depth to the squad, rotation was inevitable given the weight of games and players could not afford to become demoralised.
“If you’re not starting, we’ve not got time to care about it, in the sense that we’ve got places we want to get to,” Rogers said, explaining the message. Watkins has responded in the best way, impressing in a particularly dominant first-half display against Nottingham Forest and scoring inside a minute on his last start, against Newcastle.
Watkins made more starts than any other Villa player last season but at times this term has had to play second fiddle to Jhon Durán, who joined Al-Nassr in January, and Rashford. Tielemans, who scored a screamer to help Leicester win the Cup in 2021, has started 50 of Villa’s 52 matches, including every Premier League match, having been given the night off only in the early rounds of the Carabao Cup, against Wycombe and Palace. Emiliano Martínez and Rogers are not far behind with 48 starts. The 53rd game of the season could end with Villa in a first FA Cup final since 2015.
It remains to be seen whether the club intend to trigger the £40m option to sign Rashford, who has three years on his £375,000-a-week contract at United. For United, the Rashford conundrum has been Villa’s gain.
His first goals came against Preston in the Cup quarter-finals, the first a simple finish, the other from the penalty spot. He has been in favour since. Rashford, who started both of England’s victories at Wembley in March, propelled Villa into a place of wonder against PSG. Can he do the same again on familiar ground?
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