Prior to their Premier League matchup with Aston Villa on Saturday afternoon, Roberto De Zerbi updated his team’s injury report for Brighton & Hove Albion. Adam Lallana will be sidelined for Brighton’s match against Aston Villa.
The 35-year-old Albion midfielder came in for the final 12 minutes of Wednesday night’s 1-0 Carabao Cup loss to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge to make his sixth appearance of the year.
But because of a minor injury, Lallana will now be sidelined for Saturday’s trip to Villa Park to face Unai Emery’s hot Villains along with Pascal Gross and James Milner.
The good news for Albion supporters is that teenage striker Evan Ferguson is doing well in practice and may return to the lineup after missing the midweek trip to west London.
This season, Ferguson has already scored four goals in six Premier League games while primarily sharing the load up front with Danny Welbeck and Joao Pedro.
Roberto De Zerbi provided the following team news during Brighton’s pre-game press conference on Friday: “Pascal [Gross] is not available, he might be able to play in the Europa League [on Thursday].” Tomorrow is not James Milner’s day to play. Evan Ferguson is competent; he did a great job yesterday. Even though Adam Lallana’s injury is minor, he is unable to play.
Since the club’s ascension to the top division, Brighton has only defeated Villa once in the Premier League; last season’s 2-1 loss on the final day of the campaign was Albion’s fourth straight setback to the Villains.
Since taking over for Steven Gerrard last season and leading Villa to a seventh-place finish to qualify for the UEFA Conference League, Emery has revitalized the Midlands club.
They have won nine straight league games at home, and only Manchester City (55) and Liverpool (48) have a better record in the same span of games (45 points from their past 21 in the Premier League).
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