Aston Villa will hit the road and face Fulham this weekend in another key Premier League battle, as the Lions look to maintain their status as a Champions League side after qualifying for the competition last season.
Right now, Aston Villa sit in fifth, behind risers Chelsea by only goal difference. The Premier League top four will be even more competitive this season, thanks to Chelsea’s improvements, but Aston Villa will like their chances, too, after a productive offseason.
That summer transfer window included the acquisition of Hull City standout Jaden Philogene, one of the most talented young attackers in England and Europe as a whole.
Aston Villa were even competing against Barcelona at one point for Philogene’s signature, but they were able to beat the Blaugrana to both the young winger and center midfielder Amadou Onana,
Philogene has mostly been playing off the bench, but he has flashed his potential and can join phenomenal striker prospect Jhon Duran as a difference-maker off the bench.
According to The Athletic’s Jacob Tanswell, however, Jaden Philogene will be in doubt against Fulham on Saturday because of an unspecified injury. Scans reportedly revealed it is not a serious injury, but Philogene could nevertheless miss this one match anyway.
Aston Villa can definitely survive without the 22-year-old winger, so the larger issue may be the overall annoyance with the England U-21 team for having Philogene play in these international fixtures.
He’s already above 21 and a player with a senior appearance for a Champions League-level side in Aston Villa, so the minutes are not valuable to him at the U21 level and, if anything, should be given to someone else.
Unai Emery expressed his frustration at the decision to play Philogene and others in these youth international fixtures, and now the Aston Villa coach is without a potentially pivotal attacker in a match against a Fulham side that is eighth in the league and in European contention themselves.
The managing editor of The Trivela Effect, Kevin has 15 years of experience in digital media. He covered Real Madrid from 2019-2022 for The Real Champs as a site manager. His work has been featured in ESPN, Bleacher Report, Yahoo! Sports, NBC Sports, and other major outlets. You can contact him at the site’s official Twitter handle @TrivelaEffect or via the site’s official email thetrivelaeffect@gmail.com.