Dan Carter

Tue 19 December 2023 12:40, UK

After a slow start against Brentford on Sunday 17 December, Aston Villa managed to claim all three points thanks to second-half strikes from Alex Moreno and Ollie Watkins.

Unai Emery’s side have established themselves as genuine title contenders this season and now sit four points above reigning Champions Manchester City and one point off of Arsenal at the top of the Premier League table.

Things couldn’t be going much better for Emery’s side at Villa Park this season, but the one problem facing the Spaniard currently is the recent poor form of Moussa Diaby who has struggled to hit the heights expected of him in the last few games.

The Frenchman started the clash with Brentford but was hooked by Emery after 65 minutes having proven to be fairly ineffective in the opening stages of the match. In possession, Diaby had a reasonable 40 touches of the ball and managed to complete 93 per cent of his 29 attempted passes [Fotmob].

However, those passes did very little to break down the home side’s low block, with only one effort finding its way into the final third. None of the 24-year-old’s 27 accurate passes managed to fashion a genuine goalscoring chance for a teammate.

That was not for the want of trying as Diaby attempted three crosses in his 65 minutes of action, but could only pick out a teammate in the penalty area once with a completion rate of 33 per cent before being hooked by Emery.

Out of possession, the French winger only won two of his six duels both in the air and on the ground as he was dispossessed twice in the clash. Brentford’s backline was able to consistently keep him at arm’s length throughout the game and that will be a worry for Aston Villa.

In 14 Premier League starts this season, the 24-year-old has managed to score three goals and assist on a further four occasions, but his last league goal came back in October in Villa’s 3-1 win over Luton Town.

Since that clash with Rob Edward’s side, Diaby has taken only six shots in seven matches, failing to find the net with any of those attempts and considering the amount of money spent to bring him to Villa Park this season, supporters would have hoped from more from the Frenchman that cost a reported £34.6 million [The Athletic].

When compared to the other forwards in the Premier League this season, the Frenchman sits in the 16th percentile for non-penalty xG per 90 minutes, with a miserable 0.22 xG per game [Fbref].

He has marginally overperformed that, averaging 0.24 non-penalty goals per 90 minutes, but that still puts him in the bottom 28 per cent of forwards. Diaby is not proving to be the threat in the final third that Aston Villa thought they’d signed in the summer.

In comparison, Leon Bailey is producing an average of 0.39 non-penalty xG per game and over-performing that rate massively with an average of 0.73. The signing of Diaby was expected to replace Bailey rather than become his support act.

After the Jamaican picked up yet another assist from the bench against Brentford, Emery will have to drop Diaby for Bailey against Sheffield United. The Frenchman has not been performing well enough to warrant a place and he has to now be axed.

In other Aston Villa news, Alan Shearer is unconvinced that Jhon Duran has what it takes to be Watkins’ understudy at Villa Park