Aston Villa can live without ‘badly missed’ Douglas Luiz as four key pass Jacob Ramsey steps up v Brentford
Aston Villa remain well in the fight for the Premier League title after defeating Brentford 2-1 on Sunday (17 December).
The victory showed the willingness of the players to fight for everything under Unai Emery, with the visitors coming from behind to clinch all three points.
Keane Lewis-Potter opened the scoring for the Bees at the Gtech Community Stadium, giving the home side a 1-0 lead at half-time. But second-half goals from Alex Moreno and Ollie Watkins secured another important win for the Midlands club.
Also apparent from the win was the hugely talented squad that Emery has built at the club, with Villa picking up a hard-fought victory despite the absence of regular first-team duo Lucas Digne and Douglas Luiz.
Both players were suspended for the trip to West London, with Digne’s replacement Moreno having a huge say in the match.
Luiz’s absence meanwhile allowed Emery to hand Jacob Ramsey a first Premier League start of the season, with Moreno in the same situation.
According to Premier League journalist Alex Keble (18 December), Aston Villa “badly missed” Luiz’s “controlling presence” in midfield for the first hour of the match.
And while the Brazilian’s absence was felt, Ramsey produced a stunning display to help the visitors produce their brilliant comeback.
The versatile 22-year-old has now overcome his injury to reach double figures for appearances in all competitions this season, with seven coming in the league and three coming in the Europa Conference League.
The youngster quite simply ran the show against Brentford, with Ramsey registering an 84% passing accuracy, with four of those being key passes, twice as much as any other player [Sofascore].
Furthermore, the midfield ace won two of his four duels during his 89 minutes on the pitch, with Ramsey also making one tackle and one clearance.
He certainly has a bright future ahead at Villa Park, with his presence in midfield potentially set to become crucial if Luiz makes an exit. According to talkSPORT (1 December), both Arsenal and Liverpool are targeting the Brazilian.
And while Aston Villa should try and keep the midfield maestro at all costs, losing Luiz would not be the worst scenario in the world given the presence of his fellow midfield ace Ramsey.
Moreover, with the club likely to demand £100million-plus for Luiz [Ben Jacobs, 17 December], another talented midfielder could be brought in to further bolster Emery’s squad.
In other Aston Villa news, an 86% Aston Villa ace has given Emery a headache after what happened in the 2-1 win against Brentford.