Emery must ruthlessly ditch Villa’s “clumsy” £100k-p/w dud vs Afcb, he’s “struggling”

Aston Villa returns to action in the Premier League this afternoon as they host relegation-threatened AFC Bournemouth at home.

The Villans will be hoping to extend their unbeaten run to four matches in the division heading into the international break after winning two of their last three games.

Unai Emery’s side was, however, held to a draw by West Ham United in their last match as a penalty from Said Benrahma canceled out Ollie Watkins’ opening goal.

Will Leon Bailey start against Bournemouth?

Aston Villa winger Leon Bailey should be ruthlessly dropped from the starting XI after his performance against the Hammers and the head coach should look elsewhere in the squad to fill the right-wing position in the team.

The Jamaica international started on the right against West Ham and endured a rough 64 minutes on the pitch before being substituted. As per Sofascore, the forward only completed 11 passes and created one chance, whilst losing five of his six individual duels and failing to complete a single dribble.

Bailey was also at fault for the penalty that Villa conceded as his “clumsy” – as described by journalist Ashley Preece – challenge on Lucas Paqueta allowed the Brazilian to make the most of the contact in the box, with the resulting penalty costing the club two points.

Preece also stated that the winger has been “struggling” of late – citing his zero away goals in 21 Premier League away matches – and that is backed up by the £100k-per-week dud’s statistics.

The attacker has scored four goals and provided two assists in 25 top-flight appearances for the Villans this season and averaged a Sofascore rating of 6.64 – placing him 16th in the squad.

This comes after the 25-year-old scored once and assisted two goals in 18 outings in the Premier League last term, which suggests that his struggles are not a flash in the pan as he has been disappointing in front of goal for the majority of the last season-and-a-half.

Bailey, who has only created 0.8 chances per game for his teammates this season, has not done enough in the final third to warrant a regular starting position in the side, and his poor display against West Ham last time out should see him moved out of the XI.

Emery must ruthlessly ditch the winger and offer an opportunity to another member of the squad to see if they are able to offer more than the Jamaican dynamo.