Lucas Digne culpable as alarming Aston Villa figures emerge
Aston Villa defender Lucas Digne's performance in the 3-0 loss against Chelsea perfectly illustrates Unai Emery's defensive woes this season.
The Villans have a clean sheet rate of just 7.7 per cent in the Premier League so far this season [The Athletic, Jacob Tanswell] and have kept just one clean sheet, coming in the 0-0 draw with Manchester United on 6 October.
The Frenchman's form on the left side of defence has not helped matters, with the 31-year-old picking up three yellow cards in his 13 appearances.
Aston Villa should drop Lucas Digne
The former Everton man made his 90th league appearance for Villa in Sunday's (1 December) clash at Stamford Bridge; however, it was not a happy occasion.
The France international was not particularly at fault for any of the Blues' three goals but it was not a good defensive display from him regardless.
He has a reputation for being one of football's most dangerous attacking full-backs but he could not impact proceedings this time.
In the Stamford Bridge contest, the Villa defender recorded a 79 per cent passing accuracy and created just 0.04 expected assists (xA) [Fotmob].
Indeed, he had just one touch in the opposition box, made just one pass into the final third and completed just one of three crossing attempts for a 33 per cent success rate.
Defensively, he failed with his only tackle attempted, made three clearances, made zero interceptions and registered just three recoveries.
In terms of duels, he won one of three attempts for a 33 per cent success rate, although he fared better in the air, winning two out of three for a 67 per cent success rate.
These figures go to show that not only did he struggle in an attacking sense, but also defensively.
Digne is not performing at the level that Villa need him to and Ian Maatsen may be given a starting berth sooner rather than later.
In other Aston Villa news, Emery’s shocking decision with Jaden Philogene in the Chelsea loss came back to bite him.