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Aston Villa are back in action this weekend this weekend in the FA Cup
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Aston Villa have raised eyebrows by bringing in Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio to bolster their ranks. The pair have arrived on loan from Manchester United and PSG respectively.
Unai Emery’s side are currently sat in 8th place as they look to get into Europe again. They qualified for the Champions League last year.
Villa also ended up bringing winger Donyell Malen from Borussia Dortmund this winter. Jhon Duran left the club though for Al-Nassr.
FA make official decision ahead of Aston Villa vs Tottenham Hotspur
The FA have confirmed that Anthony Taylor will be the referee for Aston Villa’s FA Cup clash against Tottenham Hotspur this weekend. Ange Postecoglou’s men make the trip to Villa Park on Sunday afternoon in the fourth round. Gary Beswick and Adam Nunn will be on assistant referee duties. Meanwhile. Meanwhile, Simon Hooper is the fourth official.
Taylor, 46, is an experienced operator and has made 27 appearances so far this season, 21 of which have come in the Premier League. He last refereed Aston Villa during their 3-0 loss away at Newcastle United back in December. He is from Wythenshawe and worked at the top level since 2010. The Cheshire-based man started out in non-league back in 2002 before working his way up the football pyramid.
Spurs are in Carabao Cup semi-final action on Thursday night away at Liverpool. They won the first leg 1-0 so head into the match with a slender lead.
What has been said ahead of Aston Villa vs Tottenham Hotspur?
Aston Villa will want to see a reaction following their 2-0 loss against Wolves in their last league match. They have been boosted by the arrivals of Rashford and Asensio and they will both be eager to make an instant impact. Speaking after their defeat at Molineux, Emery said: “[I’m] frustrated after we were enjoying the week. In the Champions League we are performing very well and being consistent and we wanted to be in the last 16.
“Always my message is that through the Premier League we are going to get our target, but it’s very, very difficult to be consistent in the Premier League with the teams and the good coaches they have. Today in Wolverhampton it’s difficult to win here. Our performance today was a little bit under our expectation at the beginning of the match.
“Our challenge is to try and be consistent like we are in the Champions League and try to get our performances in the Premier League. Wolverhampton were very focused in the match and individually, they were very aggressive and intense. We were competing as well but we conceded one goal and some chances in the first half and we were not controlling the game like we needed.
“In the second half I changed four for some fresh legs, particularly with Leon Bailey on the right side, getting wide and trying to threaten them from there. We created some chances with Bailey and (Donyell) Malen as well; we created two, three, four chances to score but we didn’t score.”