Because of Jackson, No One is Talking About Boubacar's faultless display
· GiveMeSport
Nicolas Jackson stole the headlines during Aston Villa's win over Man City, but a midfielder should get the most credit.
Nicolas Jackson will make the headlines again after Aston Villa 's impressive home win over Manchester City on Saturday, but Boubacar Kamara deserves the biggest slice of credit. Unai Emery's men may have had a difficult start to the season, but they cannot stop winning at this point, and a number of their summer arrivals are having a major say on proceedings.
Jackson scored twice to help slay City, continuing his excellent form as he looks to prove everyone who doubted his ability to become an elite striker wrong. Fellow new signing Ibrahim Mbaye provided the assist for Jackson's second goal, and it was another all-round professional display from Villa, who are solid defensively and clearly have real talent going forward.
Based on current form, which includes six wins in their last seven games, you wonder what they can achieve if this form continues, but Emery certainly won't be getting ahead of himself.
While Jackson will get the credit, Kamara in midfield was almost faultless. Based on this performance alone, one would have thought the Villa star was the midfielder who had been signed for £125million, forget Enzo Fernandez on the other side.
Kamara won absolutely everything in midfield, and he made a number of crucial interventions in his own box. He got stuck in all over the pitch and set the tone in the midfield against an excellent City midfield. It was always going to be a crucial battle in the midfield, and Kamara won it for Villa.
Kama's impressive stats vs Man City
Villa were always going to need Kamara to step up a level following the injury to Amadou Onana that has cost the Belgian his season, even with cover being signed. This kind of performance will have Emery sleeping much more comfortably as he contemplates the rest of the season.
Though, Emery already knew what he could get from Kamara, saying earlier this month:
> "He was so, so unlucky. He had two very hard injuries for a long time, but he came back strongly the first time, and now the second time, progressively as well, he’s getting again his fitnes. > > “A lot of things he improved. He was learning, the first two years we were working was really fantastic. But I am expecting, again, the best Bouba, with his qualities, his maturity. He is intelligent, he is a good professional, so he has a lot of positive things to improve and to get his best for the next weeks, month, years, hopefully with us, and of course, for his career.”
> "It was incredible, we got the win which is the most important thing. Man City are a strong team, the league leaders. Hopefully now we forget about this one and focus on the next one." - Nicolas Jackson
Kamara wasn't the only who impressed. Jackson was clinical and Matty Cash was superb at full-back, but Villa would have struggled without winning the midfield battle here. To nullify the likes of Fernandez and Elliot Anderson, who cost more than a combined £130million last summer, and indeed the electric Rayan Cherki certainly takes some doing.
Villa now prepare for a Carabao Cup clash with AFC Bournemouth ahead of a Premier League date with Fulham next weekend. Emery is likely to lean on Kamara again for those fixtures, and he also has Ross Barkley to use, and the veteran has been excellent in the middle so far this season.
People in this story
- Enzo Fernández
- Nicolas Jackson
- Elliot Anderson
- Rayan Cherki
- Ross Barkley
- Ibrahim Mbaye
- Boubacar Kamara
- Amadou Onana
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