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It has been an awful summer for Aston Villa, with the side seeing two of their best players leave in the past week.

Club captain Fabian Delph was the first to exit, joining Manchester City for £8million, to the shock of fans, when just days before he had stated he was staying at the club.

He was followed out the door by Christian Benteke, the man who has single handedly kept Villa in the Premier League with his goals last season, having joined Liverpool in a £32million deal.

Tim Sherwood has some serious work ahead of him to replace his stars before the season starts, otherwise it looks likely the Midland club will be reunited with rivals Birmingham City in the Championship.

Good news for Sherwood is he should have the majority of the £40million they received for the duo to reinvest on his squad.

Here are four players that will help keep them in the Premier League…

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Charlie Austin

Aston Villa’s forward line is looking rather depleted after the sales of Benteke, Bent and Wiemann this summer. Currently they only have Gabby Agbonlahor, Libor Kozak and new signing Jordan Ayew.

Austin is the perfect replacement for Benteke. The player is proven Premier League goalscorer, and last season only Sergio Aguero, Diego Costa and Harry Kane scored more than the QPR strikers 18 league goals.

The new England International is reportedly available for around £15million.

He would fit the style of play at the club with QPR having used similar tactics last season.

Austin combines good technical ability with a strong aerial presence and a keen eye for goal, he would look at home with any team in the league.

He will have a point to prove to England manager Roy Hodgson ahead of next summer’s European Championship, making this a great time to sign the player as he looks to repeat last season’s goalscoring antics.

Steven Caulker

The defence at Villa has always been a major factor in their struggles, not since the days of Martin Laursen and Olof Mellberg have the club had any form of quality at the back.

Sherwood is obviously trying to address that situation, with this summer’s signings of Micah Richards and Jordan Amavi. Both players are highly-rated and many were surprised by their decision to sign contracts at Villa Park.

However, it is the central defensive praetorship that needs most work. Jores Okore is a fairly decent footballer but he is prone to errors and needs an experienced centre back alongside him.

The man for that job can be Steven Caulker, who would be available for around £8million as QPR start getting desperate to get the player’s £30k-a-week wages off the books.

Standing at an imposing 6’3″, Caulker’s ability to cover ground is a major strength of his game. He is comfortable on the ball with his passing ability very impressive for a defender. Add to that an aerial capability that is top class, Caulker often has the upper hand on most strikers.

At just 23-years-old, Caulker has a lot of years ahead of him and can continue to improve his development with a switch to Villa Park.

Esteban Cambiasso

The departure of Delph will hit Villa in more than just the centre of midfield. The club has lost its leader, and there is nobody to encourage the team and lead by example through troubled times.

Esteban Cambiasso would certainly fill both of those gaps. The Argentine has done it all in football – winning 23 trophies throughout his career and he even played a major role in helping Leicester to survive in the Premier League last season.

He would bring valuable experience and expertise that could only benefit everyone at Villa.

The player is a free agent following his decision to leave Leicester at the end of his contract, providing a bargain solution to Tim Sherwood’s problems.

Despite being 34 years of age, Cambiasso still has what it takes to cut it in the top flight of English football, and what he may lack in speed he completely makes up for in vision, leadership, composure and technical ability.

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Signing the midfielder is a win/win situation and Sherwood would be mad not to consider it.

Will Hughes

Even before this summer’s departures, the Villa attack was lacking a real playmaker, a creative force in the middle of the park to create openings for all those around him.

Tom Cleverley was given this role last season and to the surprise of many took to it well, but unfortunately the player turned down an offer from Villa and joined Everton on a permanent deal instead.

Hughes would be a great creative spark in the Villa midfield. Despite only being 20-years-old, he has been a vital member of the Derby County midfield for several seasons.

Hughes’ best attribute is his passing. He is one of those players that seems to notice a pass that nobody else can and is most effective around the edge of the box, where he is able to slot a ball through the opposition’s defence.

The youngster has already attracted interest from a number of top Premier League sides, but the lure of guaranteed first team football at Villa Park and the chance to become a club superstar can help lure him to the club.

Derby will want to put up a fight to keep hold of their star asset but in this age money talks, and it won’t be long before one of football’s hottest prospects is playing in the top flight.

It is now well over two decades since Eric Cantona signed for Manchester United and changed the course of history.

Moving from the champions of England, Leeds United, to their bitter cross-Pennine rivals and the team they beat en route to the 1991/92 league title, Manchester United, it is little exaggeration to suggest that Cantona was the initial catalyst for the 13 Premier League titles won by Sir Alex Ferguson.

His arrival was a watershed moment for United under the Scot- or at least coincided with one. Cantona made the move to Old Trafford in the very first Premier League season: the first season of Manchester United dominance over English football under Ferguson.

It’s easy, from this vantage point, to mythologise Cantona. He carries around him such a radiating aura. If he were a 19th century dramatist, a multitude of searing quotes and piercing witticisms would be misattributed to his greatness. He is the Sherlock Holmes of the footballing world: a troubled and obnoxious genius. His greatness is undeniable, but his self-centredness, his childish selfishness, his penchant for the controversial all make him unbearable.

The 1991/92 season was the end of football and the beginning of Football. The irony – and such irony is never far away from troubled greatness – is that Cantona is an irresistible part of the very modernisation he despised; the critical link between the noble old and the soulless new.

His part in the title-winning Leeds United side of the final pre-Premier League season is easy to overstate. He scored only three league goals that season, fewer than teammate Gary Speed and the same number as Leeds defender Tony Dorigo. United were hardly purchasing Leeds’ talisman.

But for Cantona, it was a Faustian deal with the Red Devils. A deal that saw him go from champion in 1992 – the final days of the old First Division – to retirement in 1997 at the age of 30 after four new Premier League titles and two FA Cups with Manchester United; a retirement decision taken in protest at the growing commercialisation of football.

He was a valued part of a grand old football team in Leeds, but he was the moral, spiritual and footballing leader of a grand new Football team in Manchester. He went from good to great, from talent to icon.

His rise at United was rapid. One of Ferguson’s greatest talents was the ability not just to see a player’s strengths, but to nurture them. With Cantona, he saw a useful dark side and gave it fertile ground to grow. The Frenchman tripled his goal tally in his first season at Old Trafford, scoring nine Premier League goals. He then finished the next season, in 1993/94, as United’s top goalscorer.

Indeed, the next year, 1994/95, that famous ‘Kung-Fu kick’ forcing him into his very own Napoleonic exile, saw Cantona end his season in January yet still manage to finish as United’s second-top goalscorer, only one goal behind Andrei Kanchelskis. That’s how important he was, and United slumped to losing the title to Blackburn Rovers on the final day.

His exile looked as though it would signal the end of his greatness. A loss of form and a loss of match fitness is almost inevitable after eight months in the wilderness. But his comeback season saw United win back the Premier League title and lift the FA Cup, too.

Cantona started his final campaign, the 1996/97 season, in a reasonable vein of form. Four goals in United’s first six matches was a respectable return for a team who were unbeaten in those six games, but had only won two of them.

But late October saw things take a turn for the worse – United lost three games on the spin, a 5-0 defeat to Newcastle United spelled the beginning of a horror Halloween, and left Sir Alex Ferguson’s side with ground to make up.

Going into a game against Sunderland in December, the Red Devils were sitting in sixth place, and nine points behind the league leaders, Liverpool. Cantona hadn’t scored a league goal in 11 games – over three months of football.

But then Cantona, the catalyst as always, starred in a 5-0 victory. He had already scored, but with his side 4-0 up with 11 minutes to play, the Frenchman picked the ball up just past the halfway line, but with his back to goal. To say there was no danger would be an understatement: but when Cantona had the ball, there was always danger.

Two Sunderland players were turned with ease before a driving run into the the heart of the Black Cats’ half meant there certainly was danger now.

A quick one-two with Brian McClair took another three defenders out of the game and Cantona only needed one more touch. Not a touch to set himself for a shot, not a touch to smash it into the top corner, just one touch to deftly lob the ball over the goalkeeper and into the goal.

But this was Cantona. It wasn’t just about the goal. It was about the theatre.

The goal was entertaining. It was beyond entertaining. But it couldn’t have happened if it weren’t for the lethargic form, the trials and travails of the tortured genius. It couldn’t have happened without the doubters and without the precarious league position. And it couldn’t have happened without a celebration.

With the look of a boxer who had just landed an unexpected knockout blow, unsure of the true greatness of his own power, Cantona slowly surveyed the landscape with a scowl before proudly raising his arms into the air. It finally dawned on him what he’d done. It dawned on everyone. And United went on to win the league.

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With the arrival of the Premier League, the theatre became as important as the sport. The great sporting moment was no longer enough. Combined with a great theatrical moment, the sporting became the iconic. And no one could create the iconic better than Cantona.

But the irony is palpable.

It may be exaggeration to pronounce Cantona the man who made the Premier League into the global behemoth it is today, but he certainly was the first great global component part.

And yet that was to be Cantona’s final season as a professional footballer. Caused by the pain of his suspension, the media pressures, a Champions League semi-final defeat to Borussia Dortmund, the growing globalisation and commercialisation of the game, his inability to cope with his troubled genius or just the very fact he was Cantona. Who knows. Maybe it was one or all of those things. But, like the end of the career of a rock star or a poet, he retired at the age of 30, brought down by the very monster he created.

From the iconic to the ironic. The beautiful and the damned. That’s Cantona.

There was a sense of relief around Everton in Sam Allardyce’s first few weeks in charge of the club.

The team ended a dismal run that was endured under the guidance of former manager Ronald Koeman.

Allardyce dragged the Toffees out of the relegation zone thanks to an unbeaten run of seven matches since the coach took over in November.

However, recent outings have not been as positive – the Merseyside outfit have suffered four defeats on the bounce in the Premier League.

The results have left them seven points above the relegation zone, and the most recent performance on the pitch was a concerning one for Allardyce.

On Saturday, the Toffees were beaten 4-0 by Tottenham Hotspur, who celebrated another milestone for Harry Kane when the striker surpassed Ted Sheringham’s club record of 97 top-flight goals.

Allardyce has since given a frank assessment about the situation facing him at Everton and claims that there is no room for error.

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Sky Sports quotes the manager as saying:

“The honeymoon period is over and the players have got to get back to listening to what we need to do to make sure we don’t get drawn back into the relegation zone. That is exactly what we are doing at the moment. We have faced facts that we can’t hide behind the wonderful run we had without being defeated.

“We have got to realise that we are threatening ourselves with a relegation fight again. That is a fact. We need to make sure we adjust and put that right as quickly as we can by putting points on the board.”

The arrival of Alexis Sanchez at Manchester United has got many fans and pundits alike wondering where the Chilean will fit in Jose Mourinho’s team.

The former Barcelona star began his career as a right winger, but over the years he has proved that he is just as influential from the left; perhaps even more so.

Sanchez has caused damage on numerous occasions by cutting inside from the left onto his right foot.

At Arsenal, the 29-year-old played wide left, but also through the middle, which means that his position could potentially be tinkered with by Mourinho.

Numerous media outlets, including Sky Sports, have been suggesting where they believe Sanchez will feature for the Red Devils.

The broadcaster opted to place the Chilean on the left side, with Marcus Rashford on the right, and Jesse Lingard in the middle, just behind Romelu Lukaku.

The selection did not go down well with a large number of United fans, who feel that Anthony Martial should be a guaranteed starter due to his current form.

The Frenchman has scored three goals and produced two assists in his last four outings for the North-West outfit.

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A handful of United supporters hit out at Sky for dropping Martial in favour of Sanchez, and instead suggested that another player should make way for the club’s new signing.

On Tuesday afternoon, Toby Alderweireld posted an image of himself in training for Tottenham Hotspur as the centre-back closes on a return to action.

Alderweireld has not represented Tottenham since picking up a hamstring injury during the club’s Champions League home game against Real Madrid on November 11.

The Belgium international declared himself fit and available last week, but he was not included in Tottenham’s FA Cup clash with Newport County at the weekend.

The 28-year-old will also not feature against Manchester United in the Premier League on Wednesday night as head coach Mauricio Pochettino takes a cautious approach.

Alderweireld will soon feature, however, and it would be fair to say that the Tottenham fans were delighted with the centre-back’s return to fitness.

The Belgian is yet to sign a new contract with Spurs – which is undoubtedly a concern – but he will be back to help the club in the final months of the campaign.

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A selection of the Twitter reaction can be found below:

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According to an interview he conducted with Dutch magazine Helden, Ajax winger Justin Kluivert, who could move for £10m according to a report linking him with Manchester United in The Mirror on February 4, has listed Tottenham Hotspur among the Premier League clubs he would be interested in signing for in the future.

What’s the word, then?

Well, the 18-year-old has been in impressive form for the Eredivisie outfit this season and has already been linked with a move to the Red Devils earlier this month, as his current contract is due to run out in 2019 and there is no agreement over a new one as of yet.

According to an interview he did with Helden, the teenager says has praised Spurs, United, Chelsea and Arsenal and has hinted that he wants to play in England soon.

What did Kluivert say?

According to the interview with Helden, he said: “England appeals to me: Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelsea or Manchester United are nice clubs where I can see myself playing in a few years.

“If you get a nice offer, you never know.”

How well has he done this season?

He has been excellent.

The winger, who can play on either flank, has established himself as a regular in the Ajax side despite his tender years, and he has scored seven goals and provided a further four assists in 25 appearances in all competitions for them this term.

According to WhoScored.com, the 18-year-old has made 30 key passes in 19 Eredivisie outings during the current campaign, while he has also successfully completed 46 of the 93 dribbles he has attempted.

Would he be a good signing for Tottenham?

He certainly could be, yes.

The teenage attacker looks to have a really bright future in the game because of the talent he has and the fact that he has already played nearly 50 matches for Ajax.

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His versatility and potential to improve would have impressed Mauricio Pochettino, who may still look another wide player to his squad in the summer despite the addition of Lucas Moura from Paris Saint-Germain last month.

Will they get him?

It will be difficult, despite his comments.

Manchester United may well be the 18-year-old’s first choice given as he was seen speaking to Jose Mourinho in depth after the Europa League final, but if he wants more guaranteed playing time then Tottenham could hold an advantage over their top-four rivals for Kluivert’s signature.

Aston Villa were under some pressure heading into Tuesday night’s Championship game against Preston due to last weekend’s 2-0 loss to Fulham.

Steve Bruce’s side were flying high when they won seven league games on the bounce, but the defeat to Fulham curtailed their victorious run.

As a result, the Midlands outfit dropped down from the automatic promotion places in the table.

On Tuesday evening, Bruce’s men attempted to move back into the top two, but it was not to be.

The hosts were dealt a blow at Villa Park when Tom Barkhuizen opened the scoring for Preston in the 37th minute.

However, the Villans were able to respond thanks to January arrival Lewis Grabban, who netted an equaliser in the 66th minute from the penalty spot.

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The result may not have been the desired outcome for Bruce and his players, but they remain in contention for promotion.

For plenty of fans, though, they felt that the performance in particular was not good enough.

Mohamed Salah will no doubt be acknowledged as the Premier League’s signing of the season for 2017/18, having now scored more goals than Luis Suarez managed in a single campaign at Liverpool since his summer arrival from Roma.

But in terms of pound-for-pound acquisitions, the signing who has proved the best value for money, the case for Brighton’s £3million man Pascal Gross is growing stronger and stronger by the game.

After supplying Glenn Murray for what proved to be the winner in the Seagull’s 2-1 win over Arsenal on Sunday, the German midfielder has now provided the most assists of any player outside the Premier League’s top six and ranks fifth throughout the entire division for key passes – only overshadowed by Kevin De Bruyne, Mesut Ozil, Christian Eriksen and Cesc Fabregas.

That’s incredibly illustrious company for a 26-year-old who was a relative unknown before arriving in England and suffered relegation from the Bundesliga with Ingolstadt last season, and it also means – including five strikes of his own – Gross has been involved in 46% of the Seagulls’ 28 goals in the top flight this term.

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And his influence on Chris Hughton’s side was evident once again on Sunday as they clinched arguably their greatest result in the Premier League so far, the Gunners wilting to another away defeat at the Amex Stadium. In addition to providing Murray with a delicious cross for the second goal, Gross created the most chances and produced the most accurate crosses of any player on the pitch.

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Brighton now appear just two more wins away from safety, but it’s unlikely Hughton’s side would be flying so high in the Premier League table right now without making arguably the Premier League’s best value-for-money signing of the season.

West Ham United have had a difficult week as the club have been bombarded with controversy.Last Saturday, tension within the fans boiled over as pitch invaders disrupted the team’s 3-0 defeat to Burnley at the London Stadium.One man was shoved to the ground by club captain Mark Noble, while another snatched the corner flag and held it aloft in the middle of the pitch.The rage comes from a large majority of supporters’ lack of faith in the board, which consists of co-owners David Sullivan and David Gold, as well as vice-chairwoman Karren Brady.[ad_pod ]Matters on the field are not going much better as David Moyes’s side have picked up just one victory in their last eight outings.At the moment, the club are just three points above the relegation zone with eight games in the campaign left to play, and the supporters are running out of patience with the manager.The Hammers will not play this weekend, so the club arranged for the squad and coaching staff to travel to Miami in the United States for a warm-weather training camp.During their trip, photographers snapped the players relaxing on the beach, and now former Tottenham defender Graham Roberts has laid into the team for going to Miami during this tumultuous time for the club.The retired footballer sent the comments directly to talkSPORT commentator Ian Abrahams on Twitter.

Ashley Young has re-written history this season, his unexpected rebirth as Manchester United’s ad hoc left-back creating a different perspective to view an otherwise underwhelming Old Trafford career from.

Just 14 goals from all competitions during his first five seasons with the Red Devils was a modest return for an attacking player at a club of United’s stature, and in comparison to a level of form for Aston Villa that saw him twice make the Premier League Team of the Season. But a sudden revival in a defensive role at the age of 32 obliges the consideration of how differently Young’s United career could have panned out had the middle section not been dogged by injury problems, managerial upheaval and the negativity generated from accusations of being a serial diver.

Indeed, if this season has proved anything, it’s that Young is a talented, intelligent, diligent and extremely determined player. In nearly 200 appearances for United, there have been few instances in which he could be criticised for a lack of work-rate, but his commitment to the club has been even more prevalent amid a campaign in which he’s reinvented himself in a far less glamorous role to become one of the few mainstays of Jose Mourinho’s starting XI.

More pertinent than that is how surprisingly smooth the transition has been. While offensive-midfielders taking up full-back or wing-back positions has always been a common ploy to get the best out of ageing players, and an increasingly popular one in the Premier League over the last few years due to greater emphasis on attacking play and the wide adoption of three-man defences, it’s still somewhat unusual for one to so willingly embrace the defensive obligations of those roles so quickly, let alone fulfil them so effectively.

Indeed, for appearances at left-back and left wing-back only in the Premier League this season, Young ranks in the top ten for both tackles and interceptions per match, and he’s tellingly been the second-most present member of a United defence that has a conceded the second-fewest goals of any side in the division this term after match day captain Antonio Valencia.

Consequently, the fact he produced easily the best defensive performance of any left-back against Premier League joint-top scorer Mohamed Salah this season in Saturday’s Northwest derby is no fleeting coincidence – it was a clear encapsulation of how surprisingly effective the veteran wide-man has been in defence throughout 2017/18.

And coming on a weekend preceding Gareth Southgate’s squad announcement for upcoming friendlies with Italy and the Netherlands, during which Danny Rose limped off injured, Luke Shaw watched Young’s immaculate containment of Salah from the subs bench, Leighton Baines made his first Premier League start since November and Aaron Cresswell and Ryan Bertrand both played a part in their respective sides conceding three goals apiece, the Manchester United star’s form obliges the question of whether he’s now the standout candidate to line up on the left of England’s defence at the World Cup.

No doubt, Young can still be a little suspect defensively at times. In the Premier League this season, he’s been dribbled past once per match, which is the highest rate of any of his England left-back competitors and almost twice as much as Bertrand, despite Southampton being amid a disastrous season that could result in their relegation.

Competitiveness in the air is a problem as well – only Baines has won fewer aerial duels per match than Young while deployed as a left-back or left wing-back this season, and it was the 32-year-old who lost Wissam Ben Yedder at a corner as Sevilla claimed a shock 2-1 win over Manchester United in the Champions League on Wednesday night.

But in terms of offensive and defensive contributions, the effective combination of which is now what we mostly judge full-backs on, Young strikes an impressive balance and has done so more consistently in the Premier League than any English left-back this season. From the six options we’ve looked at, he’s first for tackles and interceptions per game, but also first for goals and second for assists, created chances per game and dribbles per game.

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Perhaps just as importantly considering England’s eternal knack of placing their World Cup hopes in players lacking match sharpness, only Bertrand and Cresswell have made more top flight appearances than Young this season – and the latter has made just one less start as a centre-back than a wide defender during West Ham’s top flight campaign.

Young’s versatility alone – capable of playing at any level of the pitch on either flank – should earn him a spot in Southgate’s World Cup squad at a bare minimum, especially when coupled with the experience of 31 England caps and the fact his dead ball deliveries can rival any regular member of the current Three Lions setup; at the age of 32, he’s still easily one of the best crossers in the Premier League. But the ultimate question is whether, based on form this season, there’s any English left-back who justifiably deserves a place over Young in Southgate’s starting XI.

Let us know who you see as England’s best No.3 by voting in the poll below…