Hasenhüttl welcomes Romeu and Bertrand back as Smith selects Sanson on Villa bench

Ralph Hasenhüttl welcomes back some key personnel to his Southampton team for their Gameweek 21 meeting with Aston Villa.

Ryan Bertrand (£5.0m) missed the midweek defeat to Arsenal through suspension and makes an immediate return at left-back.

With Kyle Walker-Peters (£4.8m) out for an indeterminate amount of time, the right-back berth is tonight occupied by central midfielder Ibrahima Diallo (£4.5m) now that Hasenhüttl has more options in his preferred position.

Oriol Romeu (£4.5m) is the other key returnee tonight, starting next to James Ward-Prowse (£6.1m) for the first time since Gameweek 16 in Southampton’s 4-4-2 system.

Meanwhile, Nathan Redmond (£6.4m) features on the flanks of midfield with Stuart Armstrong (£5.5m) as Theo Walcott (£5.8m) moves up the pitch to play up-front with Danny Ings (£8.4m). That sees Che Adams (£5.9m) drop to the Southampton bench.

As is to be expected, Aston Villa are unchanged with Jack Grealish (£7.7m) and Ollie Watkins (£6.2m) in the left-wing and centre-forward roles respectively.

However, all eyes will be on their bench as Morgan Sanson is named among the substitutes and is thought to be challenging John McGinn (£5.5m) and Douglas Luiz (£4.9m) for central midfield berth in the near future.

Southampton v Aston Villa Line-ups

Southampton XI: A McCarthy; Bertrand, Bednarek, J Stephens, Diallo; Redmond, Romeu, Ward-Prowse, Armstrong; Walcott, Ings.

Aston Villa XI: Martínez; Targett, Mings, Konsa, Cash; McGinn, D Luiz; Grealish, Barkley, B Traoré; Watkins.

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