Emery must drop 4/10 Aston Villa star who had fewer touches than Martinez

Aston Villa succumbed to their first defeat of the year in all competitions away at AS Monaco as the French hosts beat Unai Emery‘s men by a single goal.

In truth, it wasn’t the most exciting Champions League spectacle but Monaco got over the line in the end to clinch three points in Europe’s most esteemed competition courtesy of an early Wilfried Singo header.

Emery will be praying this unwanted defeat doesn’t knock his side’s confidence heading back into Premier League action shortly, with a large portion of his first-team personnel underperforming on Tuesday night.

What went wrong for Aston Villa vs Monaco

It was a flat performance overall from the Villans who can play swashbuckling football when at the peak of their powers. After all, they have already beaten Bayern Munich in this season’s edition of the Champions League.

But, it was a tired showing from the majority of the Villa attackers in the principality, with Ollie Watkins unable to get on the scoresheet to gift his side a foothold in the contest.

On another day, the England international would fire home a chance like the one above after some excellent Emiliano Buenda trickery found him in space, but it wasn’t to be on a night where that was his only effort on the Monaco net surprisingly.

Away from the misfiring number 11, it could be argued Morgan Rogers also had a quiet night by his high standards, with only 33% of his dribbles successfully pulled off.

But, there is one player that hasn’t yet been named that put in another yet dire display for Emery’s men, with the 2024/25 season not being kind to him whatsoever after a blistering campaign prior.

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Leon Bailey’s performance in numbers

It was always going to be difficult for the Jamaican attacker to live up to his 2023/24 numbers, with the ex-Bayer Leverkusen winger helping himself to a stunning 19 goal contributions in the Premier League alone.

But, nobody would have predicted how sharp of a decline Leon Bailey would take in such a short amount of time, with the out-of-sorts 27-year-old registering just three goal contributions from 18 league games this season, as his poor form domestically begins to be apparent in his forgettable showings in the Champions League.

Only managing 20 touches of the ball from his lacklustre 57 minutes on the pitch, that was fewer than goalkeeper Emi Martinez (41), which only goes to show the forward’s lack of influence on proceedings.

Bailey did manage to get himself into some promising areas for the away side on occasion, but two big chances would go begging for the 5 foot 10 forward to try and steer his side to a confident win in Europe.

With only eight accurate passes registered too, on top of just one duel being won from three attempted, it wasn’t a great shock to see Bailey hooked just shy of the hour mark as Villa’s first alteration, with Emery now left to ponder whether the 27-year-old should have his game-time cut back in the top-flight.

Handed a 4/10 rating by Birmingham World journalist Charlie Haffenden, it could well be time for Emery to ditch his winger and unleash Donyell Malen down the right instead.

The ex-Borussia Dortmund man is no doubt eager to make an impact having cost his new side around £21m to obtain last week.

Whatever side is fielded next, Emery will be looking for a response after this drab evening in Monaco saw his side’s unbeaten run in 2025 come to a disappointing end.

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