Aston Villa v Leeds United: Premier League – live

Key events

Show key events only

Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature

Hi Ho Silver Lining is pumping out at Villa Park, with extra poignancy added by this week’s loss of Jeff Beck, the singer who hated his own most famous song as he sang on it. Rod Stewart on backing vocals, John Paul Jones on bass, and a huge hit.

The Premier League table suggests Leeds are within reach of both comfort and worry.

Unai Emery spoke to Sky Sports, mostly about transfer business.

We have more players with the possibility to leave and if we can do it we can add more players. We want to improve and have better balance in the squad with different profiles.

We know him [Moreno]; he was a very important player in La Liga. I wanted to sign a different profile of player to Augustinsson, who is on loan from Sevilla. We wanted to be more offensive. We were thinking about different players, but Moreno is the player we had in focus.

The idea is for Augustinsson is to leave, to get another option to play.

Jesse Marsch spoke to Sky Sports, and at length.

Both matches [Newcastle and West Ham] were a tale of two halves. We are trying to put complete performances together and continue to defend better. But in general I think it has been solid, but we know we can get better and that will be the priority tonight.

We want to be very good defensively. We want to press well and be very aggressive without the ball. With the ball I want to see us be a little bit more brave and vertical and not always just play wide and combinations with our full-backs. That will help us also with our counter-pressing. But I still think the key will be what we can do defensively and turning those moments in counter-attacking transitions.

It has been hard having Patrick Bamford out, he’s missed playing football. He has looked lively in training in the last 10 days. That has been my emphasis with him: stopping worrying about missing chances and whether you’re starting or coming off the bench, just enjoy your football and I think we can see the best of him.

From our ten things feature ahead of the Premier League, of which this is the first fixture, Barry Glendenning wrote this.

Coutinho hastens towards Villa exit

Handed his first start under Unai Emery against Stevenage last weekend, Philippe Coutinho played badly, got hooked after 66 minutes and was forced to look on from the bench as Aston Villa were embarrassed by their visitors from League Two. While he is unlikely to start against Leeds this weekend, just over a year after his arrival, his future at Villa seems uncertain at best. In late December, the Brazilian took to social media to rage against what he described as “lies” suggesting he was unhappy at Villa and had asked to leave in January. Given how little he has delivered for the club in the past 12 months, despite a stunning debut against Manchester United, it is difficult to imagine too many fans mourning his departure and he is fast running out of chances to impress. If he really does want to stay at Villa Park, now would be a good time to prove it with on-field actions rather than Instagram tantrums. Barry Glendenning

What do those teams mean? Philippe Coutinho is again benched, while John McGinn is out for Villa, whose new signing Alex Moreno is alongside Coutinho on that bench. No Matty Cash either, but nine changes from the Shame of Stevenage.

Maximilian Wöber, like Moreno, is a new signing on the bench, amid eight changes from Cardiff, with Pascal Struijk keeping his place despite not having the most convincing game in Cardiff. Patrick Bamford is on the bench for the first time since October.

The teams

Aston Villa: Martinez, A Young, Digne, Konsa, Mings, Luiz, Ramsey, Kamara, Buendia, Bailey, Watkins. Subs: Olsen, Sanson, Ings, Moreno, Chambers, Nakamba, Bednarek, Coutinho, K Young.

Leeds: Meslier, Ayling, Koch, Struijk, Cooper, Roca, Adams, Aaronson, Harrison, Rodrigo, Gnonto. Subs: Robles, Firpo, Bamford, Llorente, Perkins, Kristensen, Gelhardt, Wober, Greenwood.

Preamble

It was all going so well for Unai Emery – just about - and then came Stevenage. Aston Villa were comfortably in mid-table and there was, er, bandwidth for a challenge for the FA Cup. As it turned out, Hertfordshire’s finest prevailed and the last time the Villa won an FA Cup tie was under the management of the notorious Remi Garde. So, on with the Premier League and this season’s consolidation project and the visit of Leeds, who narrowly escaped similar Cup embarrassment at the hands of Cardiff.

Leeds are five points behind Villa in the table, and have yet to win a post-World Cup match, making it over two months since Jesse Marsch was able to celebrate a win. Two points above the drop zone, it’s not quite must-win for Leeds, but they will hope to channel the spirit of former manager Steve Evans, and put one over the Villa.

Kick-off is at 8pm, join me.