Southampton: Saints duo could return vs Villa after being shown in training

Southampton duo Theo Walcott and Moussa Djenepo are likely to return to contention to face Aston Villa this weekend after being pictured in full training.

A training gallery posted by Saints on their official southamptonfc.com website shows both players taking part in sessions this week after both missing the 2-0 win over Everton.

Walcott was, of course, ineligible to face the Toffees given that they are his parent club and has not been injured since joining on transfer deadline day.

His second debut for Saints saw him put in an impressive display at Chelsea and he seemed to fit straight into the team setup.

Via recent team news from Ralph Hasenhuttl, Moussa Djenepo has recurring injury problems that is linked to the physical development of his body at his young age.

He played with a hamstring problem against West Brom and even scored despite this, but the most recent training gallery shows that he could return to contention this weekend.

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Both Walcott and Djenepo coming back into the squad will help to provide many more options in attack for Ralph Hasenhuttl when he chooses his starting line-up.

Stuart Armstrong and Nathan Redmond played in the attacking-midfield roles against Everton and were both part of a very good team display.

They are probably likely to start again since they have been first-choice for a big part of Hasenhuttl’s time at Saints. However, Djenepo and Walcott can both make an impact if they are needed off the bench.

What this situation does highlight is that there is some good variety that can be called upon now.

Stuart Armstrong shows endless running, can use both feet and contributes defensively as well as in attack. Redmond is more of a classic winger but almost exclusively drives inside onto his right foot when playing on the left-wing.

Djenepo possesses the ability to use both feet and this often causes major problems for his marker – the Malian is surely the best one-on-one attacker at the club now because of this.

Walcott then provides an option on the wing or as a striker and has pace that can worry defences when he is given the space to run at them.

None of the pictures in Saints’ gallery showed Mohammed Salisu, but Ibrahima Diallo was shown taking part alongside his teammates and could be close to making his first start.