Jhon Duran has scripted a pretty incredible start to the new Premier League season for Aston Villa.
Despite being a back-up player, Duran has five goals in all competitions from just 277 minutes of football, with four of them coming in the Premier League.
In the summer, there was a lot of talk around Duran’s future, but despite all the off-field noise and some of his antics, he stayed put.
And credit to the player, he won over the Aston Villa fans by scoring goal after goal from the bench, including that incredible winner against Everton.
Then the talk around Duran needing to start games for Villa emerged and the player got his wish in the League Cup.
Villa beat League One side Wycombe in the EFL Cup, with their 20-year-old striker up top, scoring from the penalty spot, but it didn’t go down well with everyone.
Chris Sutton does a weekly simulation game where he awards a player for the best dive from the past week of football.
Unfortunately for Duran, he was the one awarded with it this time around for diving against Wycombe last week, according to Sutton.
The former England striker labelled the Colombian as a ‘talented player’, but told him ‘you are better than that’, as he told BBC 606.
Aston Villa’s Jhon Duran slammed for diving
“The winner of this week’s simulation game, I love him as a player, but Jhon Duran,” said Sutton.
“His reflex was to go down. He doesn’t want to become notorious for this. You are better than that, Jhon Duran. You are better than that. Come on! Talented player, come on!”
Jhon Duran in the Champions League
From the MLS to Europe’s elite competition, it has been some journey for Duran and now he can increase his value even further in the Champions League.
Villa have the small matter of dealing with Bayern Munich in the Champions League on Wednesday night and Ollie Watkins is expected to start.
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The England hitman, after a slow opening few weeks, is now on a roll and is finding the back of the net.
Watkins will be up against England captain Harry Kane at the other end, with the nation’s two leading strikers going head-to-head on Europe’s biggest stage.
