Aston Villa take on Chelsea and Everton in their next two Premier League matches and Dean Smith will be without Emi Buendia as well as Emi Martinez in these games.
The duo will play for Argentina against Bolivia meaning they will have to quarantine longer when they return to England after international duty.
Argentina boss Lionel Scaloni has made it perfectly clear, as quoted by The Mirror: “Regarding the clubs, we never had a refusal. We spoke and we reached a conclusion that they had to come.
“We gave the list for the three matches and there was no doubt. The players are here for the three matches.”
But according to ex-England goalkeeper Danny Mills, Villa do not need to hit the panic button for just these two matches.
“It’s odd that this hasn’t been pre-agreed,” Mills told Football Insider.
“That’s what I find strange about it. I think they’ll just make do with what they’ve got. It’s not worth bringing somebody in for what is effectively two games. That would be pretty pointless, in my opinion.
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“It’s one of those where you don’t like it but you’ve got to suck it up for those games.
“Again, with a goalkeeper, you’re hoping for two games it won’t be a huge problem and you will be able to deal with it relatively easily.”
We do agree with Mills but only in part.
Aston Villa have signed a lot of players this summer so we don’t think Emi Buendia will be missed too much. But Martinez could certainly have played a key role against Chelsea as well as Everton.
Last season, the keeper was really solid for Villa, keeping 15 clean sheets in 38 Premier League games. And the kind of form Chelsea are in, there’s every chance he could have helped Dean Smith’s side pick up something from that game.
This whole international break has been a major fiasco for all the English clubs and Aston Villa are not the only club who have suffered this quarantine problem.
There’s no doubt the players should be allowed to perform international duty but when the next break comes up, the UK sides will be eager to sort things out well beforehand.
