One Aston Villa player sent a clear message to Unai Emery with his performance in the win over Wolves.
Aston Villa secured a 3-1 victory over Wolves at Villa Park on Saturday afternoon but the outcome of the match was far from plain sailing.
Unai Emery’s men continued their trend of going behind at home after last weekend’s 3-2 comeback win over Everton by conceding to Matheus Cunha just before the hour mark.
The Villans then threw caution to the wind in the second half as goals from Ollie Watkins, Ezri Konsa and super sub-Jhon Duran completed another comeback.
Duran scored for the fourth time from the bench this season and he wasn’t the only substitution to make an impact in the second half.
Ross Barkley was ‘crucial’ in Aston Villa’s comeback win vs Wolves
Ross Barkley returned to Aston Villa this summer following a £5 million move from Luton Town. The 30-year-old has since watched Youri Tielemans and Amadou Onana form a blossoming partnership in midfield.
However, each time the Englishman has been introduced from the bench, he’s invariably made an impact, and that was no different against Wolves on Saturday.
Introduced for Onana in the 62nd minute, Barkley brought an incredible level of control to the engine room after Villa were guilty of giving the ball cheaply.
Barkley’s quality ball-playing skills were highlighted by his 100% pass completion, as he didn’t misplace a single one of his 16 passes and this provided the hosts with a platform to come back.
Despite coming off the bench with half an hour left to play, Birmingham Live’s John Townley awarded him an 8/10 match rating and described his introduction as ‘crucial’ to the win.
This isn’t the only time this season that Barkley has impressed off the bench, with the midfielder remarkably misplacing just one of his 77 passes across his last three substitute appearances.
Ross Barkley in a similar position to Aston Villa teammate Jhon Duran
Duran continues to deliver incredible performances after scoring for the fourth time from the bench in five matches this season.
Emery recently said that Duran is ‘close’ to starting for Aston Villa and yesterday, instead of replacing Watkins in attack, he played alongside the Englishman.
The 20-year-old’s red-hot form would usually result in starts, no questions asked, but because Watkins is one of Europe’s best strikers, the Colombian has had to settle for being prolific from the bench.
Barkley – who has made four substitute appearances in a row – finds himself in a similar position to Duran, where the options ahead of him are top drawer.
Tielemans has made himself undroppable from Villa’s midfield while Onana has also impressed however, in the last two games they’ve benefitted from replacing him with Barkley.
Much like Duran, a start for Barkley will surely happen sooner rather than later.
