Credit: Imago

James Barker

Mon 20 April 2026 18:40, UK

Tyrone Mings was caught out numerous times in Aston Villa‘s win over Sunderland, showing he’s perhaps no longer a viable starter for the Villans.

The 33-year-old returned to Unai Emery‘s starting XI against the Black Cats on Sunday, with his last appearances having been in the 3-1 defeat to Man United on 15 March.

It was a breathless game of football at Villa Park, with the Villans feeling confident they had the game won when Morgan Rogers made it 3-1 just after half-time.

However, Regis Le Bris’ boys came roaring back late on, levelling the scores in the space of a minute in the dying stages, before Tammy Abraham rescued the three points in added time.

Aston Villa’s win over Sunderland marked a huge step towards securing Champions League football, but for Mings, it was perhaps an afternoon that saw him take a step backwards.

Where was Tyrone Mings at fault in Aston Villa vs Sunderland?

Mings has been struggling for Aston Villa this season, with the Sunderland game only his 14th appearance in the Premier League in 2025-26.

Once again battling injury problems at Villa Park, the 18-cap England international looks to be firmly in the twilight of his career, at least at top flight level.

He’s also only contracted with Aston Villa until the summer of 2027, meaning he’ll enter this summer with only 12 months remaining on his deal.

Given his injury issues and his age, it seems unlikely Villa will be able to find a buyer for him in the summer, and so it may be a case of letting him run down his deal before leaving as a free agent at the end of next season.

Mings has earned the right to go out on his own terms given the service he’s provided to Villa, but his performance against Sunderland probably suggested why that should be coming in the near future.

His positioning for Wilson Isidor’s equalising goal on 87 minutes was poor, as the Sunderland striker had far too much space in-between Mings and Ezri Konsa.

Enzo Le Fee was able to play a through ball that split the Villa defensive duo in half from some distance away, and whilst Konsa shouldn’t have let him get goalside, Mings also should’ve done more to cut that through ball out.

Then just moments later, Sunderland were in once again, with Le Fee playing Habib Diarra clean through on goal, only for the Black Cats midfielder to see his attempted chip saved by Emi Martinez.

Mings was stood deep enough at the time of Sunderland’s attack being launched to have spotted Diarra making his run, but when it came to Le Fee playing the pass, it appeared as though he knew absolutely nothing about Diarra’s position.

That left Lucas Digne marking him and having to cover off the run of Chemsdine Talbi off his left shoulder, as he failed to get the covering centre-back help from Mings to shut down Diarra’s run, or at least be far tighter to him.

What do the numbers say about Mings’ Sunderland display?

So, Mings was punished for poor positioning for one of Sunderland’s goals and should’ve been by Diarra too, as he looked concerningly leggy against the Black Cats.

That’s understandable given his age and lack of match sharpness, but it was alarming nonetheless, and his underlying numbers from the weekend paint a similar picture.

As per Sofascore, Mings made zero tackle attempts against Sunderland, whilst also blocking zero shots, committing one foul and making just the one interception.

He also engaged in just one ground duel, which he won, gave the ball away nine times, made four recoveries and cleared the ball five times respectively.

Mings did win five of his six aerial duels though, suggesting he’s still got the ability to match strikers in the air, but the game did look to moving too fast for him around his feet, and most of his numbers suggest that too.