Unai Emery's lifts lid on plan to prevent Aston Villa concern ahead of Fulham clash

Aston Villa are targeting their fifth Premier League win of the season when they take on Fulham at Craven Cottage this weekend

Unai Emery admits it is difficult to refocus players after an international break, but has set up several tactical meetings to ensure his players have the best chance of beating Fulham on Saturday.

Ollie Watkins, Youri Tielemans, Pau Torres, Jhon Duran, Kosta Nedeljkovic and Ian Maatsen all represented their respective nations over the last week, while Morgan Rogers and Jaden Philogene featured for England's Under-21s. John McGinn, Ezri Konsa and Amadou Onana all nursed injuries over the break and are available for selection.

As is Jacob Ramsey plus long-term absentees Tyrone Mings and Boubacar Kamara, who have both stepped up their respective recoveries from ACL injuries in recent weeks. After drawing their last two league games, Villa are looking to return to winning ways against a Fulham side who have made an impressive start to the campaign after collecting 11 points in seven matches.

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"It is not easy, but trying to focus quickly with the players about the matches we are going to face," Emery said in his pre-match press conference. "Today in the morning we spoke about the tactical game plan for tomorrow. We will travel to Fulham and this evening we will work again and tomorrow morning to change the mind of players after their matches with national teams.

"We are being very demanding when we are selecting the squad, finding how we can improve always our challenges and as well our performances through those players being demanding themselves as well. I don’t want to allow for some circumstances which could relax us. Tomorrow we are going to play for three points."

Emery added: "I think we were competing last year with some players being injured, important players too. We are competing now until today with some players being injured as well. When we can add players like Mings, Kamara, Buendia, Jaden and Barkley in the squad, we are training everybody to understand our idea and style to get each one in their position feeling comfortable.

"We are then strong. I think this is the message. To keep the same level we had last year is the challenge we have. We have started the season being strong. The Champions League has been even better than expected."

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