‘Amadou Onana proves Aston Villa worth to Emery’ in substitute cameo v Preston
Amadou Onana has reminded Unai Emery what he can do for Aston Villa after coming on in the latter stages against Preston North End.
The Villans secured an easy win in the end at Deepdale thanks to goals from Marcus Rashford and Jacob Ramsey in a 3-0 win.
It was the ideal performance for Emery, who was able to rest some of his key stars and hand some much-needed minutes to his substitute options.
Onana certainly made his opportunity count as the Belgium international caught the eye after what has been a largely difficult campaign.
Onana shows his class v Preston North End
The Villa record signing is almost the forgotten man of the season, despite having such an explosive start to life in B6.
Onana looked so at home in his opening appearances in claret and blue, leaving supporters excited for the rest of the campaign.
It is safe to say that injuries have had a negative impact on the 23-year-old, who has been limited to just 23 appearances for the Villans.
| Stats | Amadou Onana |
| Appearances | 23 |
| Starts | 17 |
| Goals | 4 |
| Assists | 0 |
The latest of these outings came as a second-half substitute at Deepdale as the Belgian replaced Youri Tielemans with 16 minutes to go.
In that time, the former Everton man registered 17 touches and was able to keep up a 93 per cent pass accuracy across his 14 attempts in Lancashire [FotMob].
The midfielder made the most of his time with the ball as he completed 100 per cent of his attempted dribbles while also taking on one shot.
His defensive ability was also on show, winning 100 per cent of his duels while also contributing with one recovery against Preston.
Onana to be hopeful of more Aston Villa minutes
There is no doubt that the Belgian has abilities that could prove to be extremely useful moving forward.
The ex-Lille man has now got to fight against the qualities of Tielemans and Boubacar Kamara, who have both been superb in recent weeks.
This will be far from an easy task, but Onana has gone about it the right way in the win against Preston with a pretty stellar showing.
The game might have been over by the time he entered the pitch, but he kept it tidy and was able to show his class to the travelling fans.
Looking forward to a clash against Brighton, it will be interesting to see if the midfielder is trusted to accrue some more minutes, this time in the Premier League.