Jeff Stelling namedrops Aston Villa trio who wowed him vs Newcastle - 'Absolutely outstanding'
Jeff Stelling was impressed by Aston Villa's performance in their 1-0 win over Newcastle United on Saturday.
The Villans beat the Magpies at St. James' Park courtesy of a Johan Manzambi header, against the team that he almost joined in the summer.
Unai Emery's side are now undefeated in their last six games in all competitions, and have won six of their last eight matches.
The B6 side are now up to 12th in the Premier League following their win on the road, and are slowly recovering from a poor start to the season.
Several new signings are starting to bed in, but the games don't stop there as Villa Park is set to welcome Viking on Wednesday for a Champions League showdown.
Aston Villa had several top performers against Newcastle, but who impressed Stelling the most?
Jeff Stelling names Aston Villa trio in 'excellent' verdict
While speaking on talkSPORT this Monday, Stelling revealed his thoughts on Villa's win over Newcastle, highlighting the three players who impressed him the most.
He said: "I thought Villa were excellent. Manzambi looked terrific, [Nicolas] Jackson looked absolutely outstanding and [there was] a brilliant little cameo from [Ibrahim] Mbaye late on; he looks exciting for sure."
Every Aston Villa fan would agree with him, and the statistics prove why.
Manzambi was rated the best player on the field by FotMob, earning an 8.0 score, completing 100 per cent of his dribbles and winning four of his five ground duels.
Jackson was a nuisance all game, as he created the joint-most chances in the match with three, and had the most touches in the opposition's box with 10.
The 25-year-old also had four shots in total, tallying 0.36 in xG, while also completing both of his attempted dribbles successfully.
Mbaye was Villa's highest-rated substitute with a 7.2 FotMob score, and completed more dribbles than any other player in the match with three, despite only being on the pitch for 18 minutes.
The teenager had three shots, made four defensive contributions and also created one chance while winning 80 per cent of his ground duels.
The stat that only Erling Haaland beats Manzambi for
Manzambi has been arguably Villa's signing of the summer so far, and looks set to play a crucial role for Emery this season.
The 21-year-old already has four goals and assists combined in as many games in the Premier League, despite only racking up 257 minutes.
He's already off the mark for the Villans in the Champions League, but Emery may decide to rest him in the midweek clash against Viking.
Following Manzambi's goal against Newcastle, only Manchester City's Erling Haaland has more goal involvements in all competitions than any other Premier League player since his first start for Aston Villa.