By the full-time whistle, Aston Villa had little to shout about following their 1-1 draw against Bournemouth on Saturday.
In truth, it shouldn’t have been the case and Unai Emery should have been celebrating his side securing another three points.
But Villa’s lack of control led to a 96th-minute Bournemouth equaliser and all that effort was thrown out of the window.
Aside from Villa’s performances in the Champions League, the team has been largely poor at home this season.
But you couldn’t make that argument for the weekend game, especially the opening 30 minutes, because it was exactly what the doctor ordered.
The only missing ingredient was a goal and it took substitute Ross Barkley to open the scoring for Villa late in the second half.
Ross Barkley playing the ‘best football of his career’ at Aston Villa
When Douglas Luiz left Villa for Juventus, Emery went down the route of replacing the Brazil international in the middle of the park.
Youri Tielemans would cover Luiz’s outstanding dead-ball ability, Amadou Onana would bring more defensive bite to proceedings and Barkley would bring the ability to keep the ball under pressure.
Barkley has only started one Premier League game, but that hasn’t stopped him from being effective from the bench.
Martin Keown was keen to sing the 30-year-old’s praises and how he is now playing at the top of his game for Villa, as he told BBC Sport.
“Ross Barkley has come on at half-time, we know he has fantastic ability and he is playing some of the best football of his career,” said Keown.
“The ball is falling as he hits it and he is on it in a flash. They needed an element of luck to beat Mark Travers and the pace of the ball takes it into the back of the net.”
Barkley’s stats for Villa
A lot of money has been spent on midfielders in recent transfer windows across the Premier League, but Villa paid a small amount of fee to relegated Luton for Barkley’s services.
And it is proving to be an outstanding yet smart piece of business because there wasn’t a long queue lining up to bring him in.
Yes, Barkley has only started one Premier League game – and also an EFL Cup match – but he is still being effective for the team.
WhoScored has rated his performances 6.43 and from 243 minutes, he has two goal involvements.
| Tournament | Apps | Goals | Assists | Shots per game | PS% | Tackles | Key passes | AerialsWon | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| League Cup | 1 (90 mins) | – | – | – | 86.8 | 3 | 4 | 6.80 | |
| Premier League | 1(7 as sub) 272 mins | 1 | 1 | 0.9 | 88.1 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 6.43 |
| Champions League | 0(3) 78 mins | – | – | – | 82.9 | 1 | 0.3 | – | 6.31 |
| Total / Average | 12 (440 mins) | 1 | 1 | 0.6 | 86.7 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 6.43 |
