Donyell Malen leaves nightmare behind as Stan Collymore chuffed in Aston Villa vs Young Boys
Donyell Malen continued his stunning form for Aston Villa to seal all three points against Young Boys in the Europa League on Thursday.
Aston Villa beat Young Boys 2-1, with Malen scoring a powerful header from Youri Tielemans’ cross before smashing home again just before half-time.
Joel Monteiro scored a fantastic consolation goal for the Swiss side, but Aston Villa are now second in the Europa League table, and their Dutch striker proved to be an absolute handful at Villa Park.
Malen’s brace against Burnley on 5 October marked his first goals for Villa since April, with the Dutchman somehow getting limited game time this season.
Stan Collymore was left chuffed, highlighting how he criticised Malen at the start of the season, and how he’s eventually been proved wrong.
Stan Collymore admits he was wrong about Donyell Malen
Since the start of October, Malen has scored seven times for club and country, sparking a huge contrast to Ollie Watkins’ struggles in front of goal.
Collymore, who made 46 league appearances for Villa between 1997 and 2000, was among those to doubt the Dutchman’s ability but has since taken back his words of criticism.
Taking to X after the win over Young Boys, he wrote: “Chuffed for Malen, justifiably was criticised (wasn’t the only one) early season for his output, which he’s turned around and now is a real threat when driving at players.
“His moving is good, and you can see he wants the ball at every opportunity.”
| Stat | Malen |
| Minutes played | 60 |
| Goals | 2 |
| Expected goals (xG) | 0.27 |
| Successful dribbles | 1/1 |
| Touches | 23 |
Despite his brilliant performance, he did miss two big chances, and there’s clearly room for improvement under Unai Emery, which is always a good sign.
Having scored three Premier League goals from an xG of 2.03 in 2025-26, his clinical nature is beginning to emerge after a slow start to life in B6.
His biggest challenge is registering consistent starts in the Premier League, having only played 380 minutes despite being Villa’s joint-top scorer.
In all competitions, Malen now has six goals, and a case is starting to be made over his role in the team in comparison to Watkins.
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Should Donyell Malen start over Ollie Watkins in Aston Villa vs Wolves?
Watkins is clearly a better striker than Malen, but at the moment, he looks like the shell of a man who registered 40 goal contributions in all competitions during the 2023-24 season.
The England striker has one goal in 11 league starts, underperforming his xG by 1.64.
On merit, no one deserves to lead the line more than Malen at the moment, and the performance on Thursday will not harm his case one bit.
It’s likely that Watkins will start against Wolves, given the fact that he was rested against Young Boys, although it’s slowly becoming clear that Emery has no other choice but to start the Dutch forward.
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