Aston Villa: Moussa Diaby stinks as 28% stat emerges v Sheffield United, Gary Neville gets ‘electric’ verdict all wrong live on Sky Sports
Unai Emery may well be losing patience with his Aston Villa summer signing Moussa Diaby after yet another stinker against Sheffield United.
The Villans missed the chance to go top of the Barclays Premier League table after they were disappointingly held to a 1-1 draw against the Blades at Villa Park on Friday (22 December).
Cameron Archer, sold by Villa to the Blades in the summer, stunned the hosts by opening the scoring in the 88th minute from close range but were pegged back by Nicolo Zaniolo’s timely equaliser.
The result means Aston Villa go joint-top with Arsenal in the Premier League table but missed the chance to go two points clear and also saw their 15-game winning run at Villa Park come to an end.
They were also frustrated by VAR, which corroborated on-pitch official Anthony Taylor’s decision not to award an 11th-minute penalty when Ollie Watkins was bundled over by Vinicius Souza.
VAR continued to deny Villa after the break, with Jacob Ramsey judged to have fouled Wes Foderingham from a corner before Leon Bailey swept home just before the hour.
Emery will certainly be disappointed by his side’s overall performance but the Spaniard will surely be losing patience with summer signing Diaby who continued his underwhelming form.
It’s now one goal and one assist in his last 10 games in all competitions for Aston Villa (SofaScore) so it was very strange when Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville dubbed the former Paris Saint-Germain winger “electric” live on air (22 December, 8:54pm) at half-time during the game.
Diaby has been the polar opposite of that for a number of weeks now and the stats from his display against Sheffield United make for some worrying reading for Emery.
During his 74 minutes on the pitch, the 24-year-old completed just 75% of his passes, and completed just two of his seven dribbles at a woeful success rate of 28 per cent, an “electric” winger simply does not record those numbers.
He also failed to register a single key pass, recorded one shot on target failed with 100 per cent of his cross attempts and won just four of his eleven attempted ground duels [SofaScore].
Emery correctly hauled him off after another stinker for Zaniolo, a decision which proved masterful once again by the Spaniard after the Italian scored the crucial equaliser that certainly keeps Aston Villa in touch with the top of the table.
Sky Sports pundit Neville certainly needs to go to Specsavers because Diaby has been nowhere near electric in recent weeks but more like an expensive flop and it may well be time for Emery to axe him, especially when they face off against Manchester United on Boxing Day.
In other Aston Villa news, a journalist has blasted Garth Crooks for his Villa “fantasy” comments.