TEAM NEWS: Four out for Spurs at Villa, but Davies, Lo Celso back in training

Tottenham Hotspur are set for a trip to the midlands to face relegation-threatened Aston Villa on Sunday, and they’ll be taking a (mostly) healthy squad there. Spurs released their team news on social media today and it’s pretty good, all things considered. Spurs have four players unavailable or likely to be — Harry Kane, Moussa Sissoko, Juan Foyth, and Erik Lamela — but Ben Davies could return to the starting lineup, and Giovani Lo Celso is back in training after missing Spurs’ last match.

That’s obviously great news but it does make me wonder — with Gio only just back and an important match against RB Leipzig in the Champions League coming up, I wouldn’t be shocked if we see Gio rested or placed on the bench to start against Villa. It sure seems like this is a perfect match to start to reintegrate Davies back into the side, though. I’d be surprised if we don’t see him.

We still haven’t heard from the Football Association regarding the Dele social media fracas, but at this point it seems pretty likely that he won’t be suspended for the Aston Villa match, so I’d expect him to play as well. That doesn’t mean he won’t be suspended, which raises the specter of him being out for the match at Stamford Bridge, which would blow (but would still be a fair punishment).