Jhon Duran made a big impact coming off the bench for Aston Villa in their 3-1 win over Crystal Palace in the Premier League this weekend.
The Colombia international scored a spectacular header just 16 minutes after being introduced for the Villans in Saturday’s [September 16] match at Villa Park.
It was Duran’s third goal for the club since joining from Chicago Fire in January, with each of those strikes coming in six appearances this season – mostly as a substitute – in every arena.
With a Sofascore score of 7.6, only Douglas Luiz (8.2) ranked higher than Duran among Aston Villa players against Palace.
The 19-year-old still has plenty of competition ahead of him, but he has certainly done enough to earn a starting spot in Thursday’s [September 21] trip to Legia Warszawa.
Unai Emery intends to take Europa Conference League seriously and starting Duran would be unlikely to weaken the team given the Colombian’s current form.
Indeed, Duran’s 2.86 goals per 90 minutes in the Premier League this season is only bettered by three other players in the same category [FBref] – and two of them have made just one appearance.
These numbers are skewed by the fact that Duran only played a total of one hour, but it shows that the Medellin native made the most of his opportunities when they came.
Duran also won his only two aerial duels this season, while boasting a 100% (1/1) dribble success rate, according to FBref.
Now seems like the right time for the youngster to get a chance to show what he can do from the start of the game, with squad rotation key for Emery ahead of rhythm games speed.
Based on what we have seen so far this season, Duran will certainly grab this opportunity with both hands.
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MOTD experts agree that Aston Villa ‘escaped’ thanks to a penalty in the match against Crystal Palace
Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer and Danny Murphy all agree that Aston Villa were lucky to win a late penalty in their win over Crystal Palace.
The Villans came from behind to win 3-1 on Saturday September 16, taking the lead in the 98th minute through Douglas Luiz’s penalty, before Leon Bailey ensured all three points would remain at Villa Park at minute 101.
But the decision to award Villa a penalty was somewhat controversial after Palace defender Chris Richards appeared to win the ball following a foul on Ollie Watkins and Murphy believes the home side were lucky to win. get a penalty kick.
Speaking about the Match of the Day (September 16, 2051:
25) Lineker says:
“He had the ball twice, right? I think it’s difficult to know that at Crystal Palace sometimes you need a little bit of luck.
Murphy said:
“I think about the Palace players, in the 98th minute, I thought they (Villa) handled it a little bit. I don’t think it’s an absolute scream.
Shearer then added:
“I think it’s very difficult.”
Sudden luck
There was certainly some contact from Richards to Watkins, but whether that was enough for Villa to win the penalty is up for debate as it was clearly minimal for the striker and the American defender received a big tackle with his tackle.
But for Villa to be successful this season, they will need a bit of luck to win games where they are not at their best and they will certainly take advantage of their bit of luck at Villa Park on Saturday.
Compared to some of the decisions that have been made by the referee and VAR this season, this is not the biggest and it is more likely that Emery’s side will find themselves on the other side of one of these situations.
Bailey’s late goal ensured that it didn’t matter whether it was a penalty or not, but it was positive to see the strength in depth of Villa’s team now, with two of the three goals coming from substitutes. People. Something that didn’t happen often last year.
