Unai Emery shares what he’s now expecting Tottenham to do when Aston Villa host them in FA Cup

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Aston Villa play host to Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup on Sunday hoping to reach the fifth round of the competition at the Lilywhites’ expense.

Aston Villa aren’t in great form at present, having lost to Wolverhampton Wanderers last time out and with just one win from their last five.

Tottenham are also in poor form amid a major injury crisis that has seen a dozen first-team players ruled out of the trip to Villa Park.

However, Spurs have shown they can hammer anyone on their day. Indeed, Villa were on the receiving end of a 4-1 defeat and a 4-0 hammering by Tottenham last year.

Unai Emery, speaking ahead of the game, gave his thoughts on Tottenham and shared what he’s expecting from them on Sunday.

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Aston Villa boss Unai Emery expecting ‘best performance’ from ‘fantastic’ Tottenham

Emery, speaking to the club’s media team, said he has “huge respect” for Tottenham and, despite their injury crisis and mixed form, still have a “very good team”.

The Villa boss also praised his counterpart in the dugout, saying Postecoglou lines up his team to play “very good football”.

On Sunday, Emery will be expecting Tottenham to be at their very best, noting they’ve also analysed their win over Brentford, not just the Liverpool loss.

“Tottenham, the respect I have for them is a huge respect,” Emery said, as per the Villa website.

“They have some players injured and some doubts during the league season, but they have a very good team.

“The coach showed his capacity in playing very good football last year and sometimes this year.

“We lost against them in the only league match we played 4-1, and they played fantastic.

“On Sunday, I’m waiting for them, expecting from them their best performance.

“Yesterday (Thursday) we watched the match and we’re going to analyse not only yesterday but the match they played before.

“They can have some players out with injury but the players that are going to be available for Sunday are very good players. They have all my respect.”

Aston Villa v Tottenham team news

Ange Postecoglou has confirmed that he doesn’t expect to have any absent players returning from injury for Sunday’s FA Cup tie at Villa, with Richarlison the latest to pick up a problem.

Micky van de Ven, Cristian Romero, Guglielmo Vicario, Radu Dragusin, Destiny Udogie, James Maddison, Wilson Odobert, Timo Werner, Dominic Solanke and Brennan Johnson all remain sidelined.

Meanwhile, Dane Scarlett is cup-tied after playing in the FA Cup for Oxford United during his loan spell there.

As for Villa, they will be without Ollie Watkins, who joins Matty Cash, Pau Torres, Ross Barkley and Tyrone Mings on the sidelines.

January signing Axel Disasi is not available as he played for parent club Chelsea in the third round of the competition, but Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio are available.