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With the defensive trio still injured, Jores Okore will likely get his second Premier League start this season next to Ciaran Clark. Ron Vlaar, Philippe Senderos, and Nathan Baker will all still be out on Saturday when Aston Villa travel to face 19th-place Burnley. In general, it's bad news for the club, but if it forces Paul Lambert to play Jores Okore again, it's pretty easy to see a silver lining here.
As a reminder, Okore was phenomenal against Southampton on Monday night and showed why he should at least be the first off the bench in the defense, if not starting every match. Ciaran Clark, too, looked great in that match. If they can play as well as they did against the Saints, Villa shouldn't have to worry much about a Burnley attack that has only been marginally more competent than Villa's bumbling strikeforce.
If they can't be as good, then we've got an issue. Saturday starts a run of matches that Villa absolutely should be getting points from. A draw against Southampton is fine, but the same against Burnley is pretty much inexcusable. I don't care that the match is on the road, Burnley are terrible.
So let's hope that these injuries don't hurt Villa too much. On top of the defense, Fabian Delph is still out and Christian Benteke will be serving the last match of his red-card-inspired suspension. A win won't be necessarily easy, but it's pretty much required at this point.