'Out-trained' - Aston Villa boss Steven Gerrard reveals reason for Burnley changes

Aston Villa boss Steven Gerrard has explained his thinking behind making four changes for tonight's Premier League clash with Burnley at Villa Park (8pm).

Villa round off their home campaign with the visit of the relegation-threatened Clarets and Gerrard has brought out four players from the 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace last time out. One of them is enforced with Calum Chambers coming in for Ezri Konsa, who has suffered a knee injury and will miss the start of next season.

Carney Chukwuemeka replaces Marvelous Nakamba and Philippe Coutinho and Danny Ings make way for Emiliano Buendia and Jacob Ramsey respectively. Villa only played their away fixture with Burnley 12 games ago and have had to fill in games that were postponed against Liverpool and Mike Jackson's side in midweek slots.

Gerrard referenced his side's heavy workload in his pre-match interview with Sky Sports and also revealed that Chukwuemeka, whose contract saga continues, trained better than a couple of his team-mates to earn a slot in Villa's starting XI tonight. "We have had four games in 15 days, I thought that, for pockets of the game at the weekend, we looked quite jaded," Gerrard said.

"Young Emi Buendia, every cameo he has had and every start recently he is looking like he's ready to fire. "And Carney has been champing at the bit for an opportunity and he has out-trained one or two during the week so we want a freshen that second line up tonight.

"Hopefully we have enough creativity to score one or two goals tonight." The versatile Chambers, meanwhile, continues to show how much of an asset he is for Gerrard having played in midfield and defence since his arrival from Arsenal in January.

"He's playing at the back tonight because we only have