Aston Villa put their pre-season troubles behind them to record a valuable 2-1 win at West Ham United on Saturday at the London Stadium.
He may no longer be at the club, but it even impressed former loan star, Nicolo Zaniolo – he scored at West Ham last season.
Unai Emery’s side went into their opening Premier League fixture on the back of losing four games in pre-season and the team still trying to gel.
As a result, some Aston Villa fans were unsure as to what they might witness, but within four minutes, Amadou Onana scored on his Villa debut.
The team looked sharp and the better side from the off, with Leon Bailey hitting the post, before West Ham scored a questionable penalty.
Even though he played zero minutes in pre-season, Emery started the game with Ollie Watkins, with West Ham linked Jhon Duran on the bench.
After an hour, Duran was introduced into the action and the inevitable happened because he ended up scoring the winner to the elation of the away supporters.
The 20-year-old expressed his delight on Instagram at scoring that winner and he was lauded in the comments section by many players.
Jhon Duran praised for scoring Aston Villa winner at West Ham
Zaniolo, who was on-loan at Villa last season, applauded Duran in the comments section, whilst Morgan Rogers wrote ‘my number nine’ after he was given a new number this summer.
Pau Torres set fire emojis to the striker and ex-Tottenham centre-back Davinson Sanchez called him a ‘player’.
Jhon Duran needs to stay at Aston Villa
Naturally, Villa will score a fair amount of goals because of how Emery has set the team up, that shouldn’t and won’t be a worry.
But the team still needs cover behind Watkins and Duran is that guy. He just needs to remain patient and his minutes will increase.
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Villa have been told to keep Duran by Tim Sherwood and that should remain the case even if the required money is put on the table for his talents.
Champions League football is returning to Villa Park and Emery is going to need as much depth as he can possibly have on his books.
