Anthony Onifade

Tue 26 December 2023 17:10, UK

Aston Villa will have another chance to reach the Premier League summit when they take on Manchester United on Tuesday (26 December) and Unai Emery must make a brutal call on Moussa Diaby.

The Villans missed the chance to go top after they were disappointingly held to a 1-1 draw against the Blades at Villa Park on 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 late equaliser.

The result meant Aston Villa went 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.

The Villans 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.

However, such controversies certainly won’t have masked the underwhelming display from Aston Villa as they simply failed to match the performance levels previously shown on home turf.

Emery’s men looked a shadow of the side which took apart Arsenal and Manchester City in the space of a few days, and should his team continue that worrying trend at Old Trafford, they could well leave themselves exposed once again.

One player who’s certainly looked a shadow of his former early Aston Villa self is Diaby who looked totally anonymous against the Blades.

It’s now one goal and one assist in his last 10 games in all competitions for Aston Villa (SofaScore) after he raced to three goals and three assists from his first eight games at Villa Park.

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 kept Aston Villa in touch with the top of the table.

It was the same story in their previous encounter against Brentford.

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.

When Aston Villa brought in Diaby from Bayer Leverkusen over the summer, it was down to his consistent influence and decisiveness in the final third that showed he was ready for the next level in the Premier League.

While the Frenchman underwent a stunning start to life at Villa Park, he’s dramatically gone off the boil again and it’s why he is no longer a permanent fixture for his country at senior level.

It may not be long before he isn’t even a permanent fixture back in Birmingham should these faltering displays continue, but Emery may have to make the brutal call to axe him at Old Trafford.

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