Aston Villa: Unai Emery needs Leon Bailey to step up to fill Ollie Watkins void v Manchester City
Unai Emery will need an incredible improvement from Leon Bailey, especially in the absence of Ollie Watkins, as Aston Villa prepare to take on Manchester City on Wednesday (3 April).
Watkins is set to be a huge loss against the current Premier League champions, having left the field at half-time during the 2-0 victory over Wolves on Saturday 30 March.
The injury could leave Emery with no option to start 20-year-old Jhon Duran, who has yet to make the desired impact, scoring just five goals in 38 appearances for the Villans.
This would suggest that Villa will be highly dependent on Bailey, who is the club’s third-highest scorer this season, behind Watkins and Douglas Luiz. However, he must do much better than he did against Wolves.
While the Villans were able to steal a 1-0 victory against Man City at Villa Park in December’s return fixture, Pep Guardiola’s team have not lost a single match since.
Leon Bailey must improve on Wolves performance as Aston Villa travel to the Etihad
Despite playing 90 minutes in the 2-0 win over their Midlands rivals, Emery will have been very disappointed with his winger, especially after it was Moussa Diaby who stepped up to fill Watkins’ boots.
With a 33 per cent success with crosses against Wolves, as per FotMob, the Jamaican’s accuracy left a lot to be desired, also registering a zero per cent shot accuracy.
Bailey was also substandard with his defensive duties, having lost the most duels out of anyone on the pitch (13) and winning just 33 per cent of his ground duels.
He was also dispossessed on four occasions, dribbled past three times, and made four fouls, lucky to avoid a yellow card from Paul Tierney.
Fans and pundits have come to expect much more of the winger, with Ian Wright dubbing him “unbelievable” earlier this season. [Wrighty’s House podcast]
It was an unusually poor outing by Bailey, and he will need to improve massively as Villa travel to the Etihad Stadium to face Man City on Wednesday.
In other Aston Villa news, Hutton had admitted Luiz wants to play in the Champions League amid Arsenal transfer links
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