Aston Villa suffered a hugely disappointing 3-1 defeat against Newcastle United in the Premier League on Tuesday night.
It was a dismal performance from Unai Emery’s side who could have moved to within two points of leaders Liverpool with victory but were punished instead by a rampant Newcastle side.
The visitors showed more energy, aggression and were quicker with their forward play as Anthony Gordon demonstrated how to exploit Villa’s high line with his runs in behind.
Although the Newcastle star had chances to score in the early stages, it was centre-back Fabian Schar who sent Eddie Howe’s side into a two-goal lead, capitalizing on some lacklustre Villa defending from a corner on both occasions.
An unfortunate own goal from Alex Moreno just after half-time put the game out of sight of before Leon Bailey combined with Ollie Watkins off the bench to grab a consolation.
On a night when several underperformed, it was Boubacar Kamara who was bitterly disappointing.
The Frenchman is normally the aggressor next to Douglas Luiz, capable of regaining possession back for his team, but he was well off the pace tonight.
Newcastle’s midfield trio of Lewis Miley, Bruno Guimaraes and Sean Longstaff had the edge over him physically with Kamara winning just two of his eight ground duels and one of his four aerial duels, as per Sofascore.
Unfortunately, Villa attacker Moussa Diaby somehow managed to perform worse than him on the night.
How did Moussa Diaby perform against Newcastle?
Diaby’s struggles in a Villa shirt continued on Tuesday night.
The 24-year-old has now only recorded two goal contributions in his last 12 Premier League appearances.
Despite looking a threat on the counter-attack against the Magpies, he failed to capitalize when he got into promising positions.
There was a point in the first half when he simply had to pull the trigger, but instead, he inexplicably attempted to cut it back for Watkins and Newcastle sniffed out the danger.
That is a sign of a player who is lacking confidence in himself in the final third and if that was the Diaby who initially set the Premier League alight, there’s a huge chance that nestles in the back of the net.
Aside from being wasteful with his opportunities in and around the box, he also made just 18 touches – fewer than goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez – and recorded just 71% of his passes, lost 66% of his ground duels (1/3) and missed one big chance.
After being substituted for Bailey in the 62nd minute, the Jamaican proved that he should have started over him by making an impact straight away.
He instantly caused the Newcastle defence more problems by supplying the assist for Watkins’ goal and was a constant menace with his tremendous skill and trickery.
Emery has to now own this mistake of leaving Bailey out of the side and consider dropping Diaby for Saturday night’s trip to Sheffield United.
