Aston Villa know they need to win against Sunderland on Sunday afternoon. But the Stadium of Light will be ready to heap more misery on Unai Emery’s side, who are yet to score in the Premier League this season.
Moreover, Villa fell from the Carabao Cup in midweek, beaten on penalties at Brentford after a 1-1 draw.
It’s not been the best of starts, but here is a squad carrying plenty of quality, and Emery is a master of problem-solving. However, the Villans have one of the oldest average starting line-ups in the league, and some new life needs to be injected.
Fulham
19
27.6
Aston Villa
21
27.3
Everton
18
27.1
West Ham
21
27.0
Newcastle
20
26.8
Well, Harvey Elliott marked his full debut with a goal on Tuesday evening, and the Liverpool loanee will be gunning for another start on Tyne and Wear.
Harvey Elliott announces himself at Aston Villa
Elliott, 22, is contracted to Aston Villa on a short-term deal that runs until the end of the season. However, there is a purchase option worth £35m embedded in the agreement.
He will score better goals than the one at the Gtech, a tame finish weaselling its way past a disappointed Hakon Valdimarsson, who should have done better.
But score Elliott still did, and he also created a chance, completed 91% of his passes and won both of his duels (data via Sofascore) across more than an hour on the field.
A sharp-visioned playmaker, the England U21 star brings skills and style and swagger to the Lions fold, and he will hope to start from an attacking midfield berth, creating for the likes of Ollie Watkins, who has been out of sorts so far.
However, Elliott isn’t the only fresh talent who needs to be thrown in against the Black Cats, with Jadon Sancho also showing flashes of promise against Brentford.
Why Emery should start Jadon Sancho
Signing Sancho on loan was a gamble on Aston Villa’s part. The winger’s elite talent remains inarguable, but off-colour performances at Manchester United and an indifferent loan spell at Stamford Bridge last season underline the importance of an impressive campaign under Emery’s wing.
The England international, last capped against Andorra in 2021, has slid down a morass of turmoil and disappointment since leaving Borussia Dortmund as a bona fide prodigy and joining the Red Devils for £73m. Middling returns have become the norm.
However, he’ll hope to take a leaf from Marcus Rashford’s book and rise to the fore once again at Villa Park. There’s a player in there, all right, having been labelled a “generational” talent by journalist Jamie Jackson upon arrival at Old Trafford.
Fleet-footed and dynamic, the 25-year-old isn’t at the last-chance saloon, but he has the chance to make a change in a Villan side newly blunted in attack. There is an opportunity for such a player to step up and stop being a “supporting act”.
Against Brentford in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday, he showed flashes of that quality, crashing a strike against the woodwork and creating two chances for his teammates, data courtesy of Sofascore.
If Sancho can polish his dribbling during the matches to come, he will prove an invaluable asset, perhaps emerging as the man to lift Watkins back up from the dry patch in which he sits.
Watkins has certainly not been at his best so far this season, but he remains a fierce striker in the Premier League, with 32 goals and 23 assists in the top flight since the start of the 2023/24 term.
Success on the ball will come. Emery will ensure it happens. And anyway, Sancho ranks among the top 12% of attacking midfielders and wingers across Europe’s top five leagues over the past year for progressive carries and the top 16% for successful take-ons per 90, as per FBref.
This fleetness when moving apace has even seen Sancho likened to a former Aston Villa stalwart: after signing for Man United, pundit Ian Wright said that Sancho was “like Grealish” in regard to his skills and gusto on the ball.
Grealish, flying at Everton, was once an almighty talisman at his boyhood Villa before departing for the riches of Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City in a record-breaking £100m move.
He came and conquered, but he also fell at the Etihad, and has demonstrated this season in David Moyes’ system an ability to rise up once more.
Sancho will likely have noted his countryman’s rebirth, gearing up for one of his own at Aston Villa.
Given the tactical likeness between the two attacking forces, Sancho will know he walks on ground that could see him finally leave his mark on the Premier League, adding athleticism and creativity and grace to a side lacking a goal threat right now. On his A-game, he will elevate Watkins, and indeed the wider scope of Aston Villa’s offensive play.