Unai Emery can breathe a little easy!
Aston Villa’s 1-0 win over Southampton has lifted morale around the place after the doom and gloom of going eight games without a win.
It all started with Villa’s win over Brentford in midweek, a much better performance and deserved three points for the side in front of their own fans.
Given the heavy fixture list, Emery made several changes to his XI for the visit of bottom-of-the-table Southampton.
Jhon Duran, who scored the only goal of the game, replaced Ollie Watkins up top, Diego Carlos came in for Matty Cash, with Ezri Konsa shifting to right-back and Ian Maatsen replaced Lucas Digne.
The weather didn’t help anyone’s cause and it made the match pretty scrappy, with Villa creating enough clear-cut chances to score more, but once again, lacking that cutting-edge and ruthless nature.
Thankfully, in the first half, Duran bulldozed his way through two Southampton centre-backs, showcased his brute strength whilst running through on goal and then brilliantly lifted the ball over the on-rushing goalkeeper to score.
Jhon Duran’s most mature performance under Unai Emery
I watched Duran from the Holte-End against Southampton and there were many encouraging signs.
There was a lot of noise around Duran in the summer, but he stayed on board, signed that contract and now it’s working out like a treat.
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That was his 50th Premier League appearance against his Saints – only his fourth Premier League start – and it was his most mature performance yet.
Duran is a livewire in the forward areas, off the cuff, and sometimes, it can feel a little erratic, but he is now able to mix that street-like style with calmness in the final third.
Watkins is very well balanced in between the width of the posts, his style, from dropping deep to linking up play in the final third, is better suited to the team than his striker counterpart.
But it’s fair to say that the Colombian star is now showing signs of what Watkins usually brings to the table, he is learning and it’s all working in good stead for Aston Villa.
Aston Villa's Columbian striker #09 Jhon Duran scores the opening goal of the English Premier League football match between Aston Villa and Southam...
Photo by ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images
Duran’s stats for Villa this season
There aren’t many teams in the Premier League or Europe who can boast a back-up striker option like Villa have with Duran.
Villa’s recent barren run proved that, no matter what, Emery is going to stick with Watkins as his main man, which is the right choice.
But Emery knows he has a ruthless character to call upon because in just 745 minutes of football this term, Duran has already bagged nine goals.
Competition Apps Goals Assists Minutes
Premier League Premier League 15 5 –
UEFA Champions League UEFA Champions League 5 2 –
EFL Cup EFL Cup 2 2 –
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