Ibrahim Mbaye has given Unai Emery a Tottenham selection dilemma

For all the talk about Aston Villa’s injuries and the players Unai Emery hasn’t had available to him during the opening weeks of the season, I actually think we have reached a point where one of the most interesting parts of picking the team is working out which attacking players he leaves out, particularly now João Gomes is available for Tottenham and should be able to play alongside Boubacar Kamara.

That gives Villa the midfield base they have been missing and, just as importantly, means John McGinn remains further forward rather than having to drop back into one of the six positions, like he potentially would have in Gomes' absence.

Nicolas Jackson will surely lead the line and you would imagine McGinn will be one of the three playing off him, which leaves two places between Ibrahim Mbaye, Johan Manzambi, Emi Buendía and George Hemmings, all of whom have legitimate reasons to believe they should be involved.

It is a pretty good selection problem for Emery to have and, after what happened against Coventry on Wednesday night, I think Mbaye has made himself increasingly difficult to leave out. I don’t think everything came off for him and I don’t expect it to at his age, but there is something about him every time he gets the ball that makes you think something might happen, because he wants to run at people, get Villa up the pitch and continually ask questions of the defender in front of him. There is a fearlessness to the way he plays which I think this team needs at the moment and Tottenham might actually be a really good game for him.

If Villa go there and play in the way I expect them to, there should be opportunities to counter because Spurs are going to want the ball and push players forward, while Villa will need players who can turn those moments when possession changes hands into attacks very quickly. Mbaye can certainly do that, although the interesting thing for Emery is that Manzambi can as well in a slightly different way, picking the ball up and carrying it a long way very quickly, while Buendía gives you more creativity and the ability to find the pass that releases those runners. Hemmings has done himself no harm at all with what he has shown so far either, so there are different combinations available depending on exactly what Emery wants Villa to look like.

McGinn being one of the three probably gives him a bit more freedom with those other two selections because you know exactly what he is going to give you without the ball, you know he will do the work Emery wants from that position and he also provides some of the physicality that perhaps isn't there if you put three of the younger or smaller attacking players together. That should allow Emery to be a little braver with the two players he puts alongside him, particularly with Gomes and Kamara behind them providing a platform which should give the attacking players a bit more freedom to take risks when Villa win the ball back.

The combination of McGinn, Manzambi and Mbaye behind Jackson certainly appeals to me because there is an awful lot of running power in that front four without Villa completely losing their structure. Jackson gives you the threat through the middle and somebody who is prepared to run in behind, Manzambi can carry the ball through the pitch and Mbaye can get at Tottenham down the right, while McGinn gives you that bit of everything that helps hold it together. Against a Tottenham side who are likely to have plenty of possession, there is something about that combination which looks capable of hurting them when the game turns over.

Buendía obviously gives Emery another way of doing it and I wouldn't rule him out either. There has been criticism of him already this season and I understand some of it and am quite critical myself, but I still think his movement and creativity can be useful, particularly if Villa are going to surround him with players making runs beyond the ball rather than asking him to provide all of the attacking threat himself. He also had a couple of very good days at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last season, scoring in both the league and FA Cup games, so there is an argument for using somebody who has already shown he can have an impact in this particular fixture.

That is why I don't really look at Villa's attacking situation and think we are short anymore, because the question has changed from wondering who Emery can actually select to trying to work out which combination gives him the best balance. With Gomes and Kamara available to play as the midfield two, Jackson leading the line and McGinn taking one of the three positions behind him, Emery essentially has two shirts to hand out and a number of players who have done enough to be in the conversation for them.

Mbaye would be one of the two for me because there is already a sense that defenders are going to have to work extremely hard when he is on the pitch. Even when he doesn't beat his man, he keeps coming back at him and making him defend again, and there is value in that over the course of a Premier League game, particularly now Villa have other quick players who can come from the bench and continue asking the same questions rather than the threat disappearing as soon as changes are made.

I don't think that means Mbaye suddenly has to become somebody we expect to start every Premier League game, because that would be unfair on him and Villa have deliberately built a squad which should allow Emery to change those positions depending on the opposition. What there does have to be, though, is a route into the team when a young player gets an opportunity and performs well enough to deserve another one, and I thought Mbaye did exactly that against Coventry.

Gomes being available means Emery should be able to use the midfield two he wants, keep McGinn as part of the attacking three and play Jackson through the middle, so the decision now comes down to which two players complete that attack. There are good arguments for Manzambi, Buendía and Hemmings, and I wouldn't be particularly surprised by any of them, but on the back of what we saw on Wednesday and with the type of game I expect at Tottenham, I think Mbaye has done enough to take one of those places.