Arsenal
Aston Villa
Chelsea
Crystal Palace
Everton
Fulham
Liverpool
Manchester City
Manchester United
Newcastle United
Nottingham Forest
Southampton
Tottenham Hotspur
West Ham United
Wolverhampton Wanderers
News
Aston Villa should give Jota first start against Everton
Aston Villa host Everton on Friday night in the Premier League and it’s vital that they get some points on the board.
The Midlands giants have lost their opening two league fixtures against Tottenham and Bournemouth, so it’s important that they have a response at home to unbeaten Everton.
Dean Smith’s side have shown some promising moments to suggest they can do well in the top-flight, but points are ultimately the most important and it’s up to the manager to get the best out of his squad.
Smith has options at his disposal that he shouldn’t be afraid to use and it’s likely he will need to rotate during the course of the campaign.
The Midlands giants have a number of options in wide areas and it could be time for an early swap.
Jota, 28, joined from Birmingham City in the summer and he deserves his first competitive Villa start against Everton.
The dazzling wide player was particular impressive during pre-season and so far has had to make do with cameos off the bench.
He’s the type of positive dribbler and creative threat that Villa need to inject to their side, as they could have some difficult breaking down an Everton team with back-to-back clean sheets.
Attacker Anwar El Ghazi should be the wide player to drop out, as he’s had a difficult start in the Premier League and failed to seize the opportunity with two starts.
He cost £8million () to sign on a permanent basis and he will have an important role to play this campaign, but his place can’t be guaranteed and the competition with Jota should bring the best out of both of them.
The Dutchman was a little too selfish against Bournemouth and teammate Jota deserves his shot on Friday night.