Aston Villa boss Emery handed big boost ahead of Bournemouth bout

Unai Emery has confirmed that Ollie Watkins will be fit to play against Bournemouth, after missing out last week due to a small hamstring issue.

The Aston Villa boss said: “He rested last week because he had a small injury and he was not ready to play.

“But this week progressively he was joining us, training normally, and today he trained normally.”

Amadou Onana was an unused substitute against Brentford as he was not “100 percent” but is now back to full fitness, meanwhile.

But John McGinn, Youri Tielemans, Boubacar Kamara and Andres Garcia remain out of action.

January signing Alysson is also not quite ready despite being back in training.

Ross Barkley is making good progress though. Emery said: “Barkley is coming back, it’s very, very important because he knows us and he has the skill we need to play as a number eight or number ten.”