Aston Villa lineup vs. Crystal Palace: Predicted XI for FA Cup semi-final as Ollie Watkins question answered

Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins will no doubt be banging on the door for a start in Saturday's FA Cup semi-final with Crystal Palace at Wembley.

The England international's reward for opening the scoring after 33 seconds against Newcastle United was a spot on the bench against Manchester City, where his side fell to an agonising 2-1 loss in midweek.

However, Unai Emery may have just played a genius move with Watkins, who used the anger from his starting XI snub to good effect against Newcastle after being overlooked for the Champions League quarter-finals with Paris Saint-Germain.

The Villa boss will be keeping his fingers crossed for Watkins to channel that fury to good effect on Saturday too, as the ex-Brentford man returns to join Marcus Rashford and Morgan Rogers in the final third.

John McGinn can also anticipate a recall to the attacking quartet; the Scot is one of just three survivors from Villa's last game at Wembley in the 2019 Championship playoff final, alongside Tyrone Mings and the exiled Kortney Hause.

McGinn's recall could spell bad news for Amadou Onana as Youri Tielemans and Boubacar Kamara pair up in the centre, but there ought to be no alteration to the settled backline of Matty Cash, Ezri Konsa, Pau Torres and Lucas Digne.

Emery does not have a single fitness concern to factor in for the semi-final, and his only absentee should therefore be the cup-tied Axel Disasi.

Aston Villa possible starting lineup: Martinez; Cash, Konsa, Torres, Digne; Kamara, Tielemans; Rogers, McGinn, Rashford; Watkins

> Click here to see how Crystal Palace could line up for the semi-final