Aston Villa podcaster Chris Dolan has been sharing his praise for Villa midfielder Ross Barkley after his display in the club’s 3-0 win over Arsenal at the weekend.
This comes after Dolan recently co-hosted the latest episode of The Villa View to reflect on the victory against Mikel Arteta’s side.
On the topic of Barkley, who played the entire match at the Emirates Stadium and assisted Ollie Watkins’ first goal of the game, Dolan had this to say on the midfielder.
He said: “That was his best performance in a Villa shirt. One thing that probably let him down, but [I am] just nit-picking – I don’t think his set-pieces were great tonight from corners. I thought we lacked a bit of quality from our set-pieces but really, apart from that, he looks like he’s getting fitter as well.
“Seems like he has a slight niggling injury with his knee, I think he jarred his knee a little bit towards the end of the second half and he had a few minutes where he was he was hobbling around but shook it off quite quickly and I thought overall he was probably my man of the match.”
Villa signed Barkley on a season-long loan deal from fellow Premier League side Chelsea back in September.
Barkley’s performance against Arsenal earned him an impressive match rating of 8.17/10, making him Villa’s second-highest-rated player on the night (per WhoScored).
During the match, Barkley, who is currently valued at £19.35 million (as per Transfermarkt), had four shots at Arsenal’s goal and also managed to make six key passes.
Overall, Barkley has scored two goals and provided one assist in the five Premier League games he’s played for Villa so far in this campaign, earning him an impressive season rating of 7.62/10, making him Villa’s third-highest-rated player at this moment in time.
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TIF Thoughts on Chris Dolan’s comments on Barkley…
Listening to what Dolan had to say on the podcast, it’s clear that he was very impressed by the performance that Barkley put in against Arsenal.
Looking at his record so far this season, it’s clear that Villa made a smart decision in signing the Englishman on loan for this campaign and have clearly benefited from having him in their squad.
Hopefully, Barkley can continue putting in solid performances for Villa throughout the remainder of the season and help them finish as high up the table as possible.