Aston Villa: Youri Tielemans proved point to Unai Emery with Tottenham display, Boubacar Kamara won’t be missed
Youri Tielemans produced a Man of the Match display from the substitutes’ bench in a statement performance for Aston Villa in their 2-1 win at Tottenham.
The Belgium international was brought on along with Leon Bailey at half-time with the scoreline locked at 1-1, taking the places of Matty Cash and Moussa Diaby respectively.
Tielemans could consider himself somewhat unfortunate not to have started the game in the first place, but he made sure he sent out a message to Unai Emery when he was turned to.
The one-two he played with Ollie Watkins for what proved to be Villa’s winner was world class; the former Leicester City playmaker slotting in his team-mate perfectly to convert.
That was one of two key passes Tielemans played, which was bettered only by John McGinn (three) among Villa players [WhoScored], despite the Belgian only coming on for the second half.
Tielemans helped the visitors dominate possession after being introduced – no easy task against the likes of Giovani Lo Celso and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg – by registering 41 touches and completing 87% of his passes [Sofascore].
That passing-accuracy figure is not as impressive as Boubacar Kamara’s return of 93.5%, but Tielemans played far more defence-splitting passes.
As per WhoScored, not a single one of the midfielder’s passes were defined as “long” – compared to six for Douglas Luiz, for example – as he instead looked to play short, intricate passes.
It was the type of performance that surely now seals his spot in the starting line-up against Bournemouth on Villa’s return to Premier League action next weekend.
Emery will be without ever-present midfielder Kamara for that game as he picked up his fifth yellow card of the season in North London, meaning an automatic one-game ban.
Kamara won four of his 10 duels against Spurs [Sofascore] and lost possession four times, while he has not registered a WhoScored rating above 7.0 in any of his past three appearances at club level.
Tielemans slotting in alongside Douglas Luiz therefore makes perfect sense against Bournemouth, and it may well be that the summer signing now makes himself undroppable in that position.
In other Aston Villa news, one player had a 0% shocker in the win at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.