Crystal Palace handed big injury setback ahead of Aston Villa, Vieira will be gutted - opinion

Crystal Palace will be without senior midfielder James McArthur for their Premier League trip to Aston Villa this afternoon.

The Scotsman missed last weekend’s 1-0 win over Watford with a knock and Eagles boss Patrick Vieira has confirmed that the 34-year-old will be absent once again as the south London outfit make the trip to the West Midlands.

As quoted by football.london on Friday night, the Frenchman said: “We had a couple of injuries this week. But again, we will have to wait until tomorrow to see if they will be okay.

“Macca we know is not going to be part of the squad because he didn’t start training with the squad yet. Then the rest of them will have to wait until tomorrow (Saturday) to see if they will take part in training in the morning or not.”

While perhaps not Palace’s most talented midfielder, McArthur is a reliable asset for the Eagles and his experience is invaluable.

The Scotsman has made 20 league appearances this term and had started back-to-back matches for the first time since November prior to last weekend.

Moreover, he got the assist for Wilfried Zaha’s late winner against Southampton in his last appearance and had been in excellent form, averaging Sofascore match ratings above 7/10 in his last three appearances.

Granted, Vieira is blessed with some decent midfield options, such as player of the season Conor Gallagher, but the 45-year-old will be keen to have as many of his key players available as possible.

There will certainly be a concern amongst the Palace faithful that the injury will keep the 34-year-old out for the remaining three matches of the campaign, with McArthur set to leave Selhurst Park at the end of the season with his contract expiring next month.

Having made the move to the