Against Crystal Palace, I witnessed four out of ten players jeopardize their futures at Aston Villa with a “peculiar” performance.
In the final game of the 2023–24 season, Aston Villa fell to Crystal Palace 5-0 on Sunday afternoon, with one of Unai Emery’s players failing to live up to expectations ahead of the summer transfer market.
On the last day of 2023–2024, Unai Emery’s team was still celebrating at Selhurst Park after Aston Villa’s 5-0 loss to Crystal Palace in the Premier League title match.
As early as the ninth minute, Oliver Glasner’s assault punished the Villans through Jean-Philippe Mateta and Eberechi Eze, blowing the visitors away.
READ MORE: During the 5-0 thumping, Crystal Palac a song about Aston Villa.
The away end serenaded their players throughout the match, so thankfully Villa’s defeat did not harm their season after they secured Champions League football on Tuesday night.
Despite all of the positive points that Villa has achieve supporters sanged this week and this year, a number of players’ performances at Selhurst Park on the last day may raise some red flags, Clement Lenglet among them.
Clement Lenglet wasn’t good enough in the loss to Crystal Palace.
After receiving a 4/10 match rating by writer John Townley for BirminghamLive’s player ratings, Lenglet fell short of Emery in his last game as a Villa loanee.
The Frenchman was given ideal scoring opportunities due to the center-back’s careless defending, as he often failed to contain Mateta’s threat in central defense alongside Diego Carlos.
Journalist Jacob Tanswell said of the pair during the match that they appeared “peculiar” and had a cautious edge to them since Palace’s front line took advantage of any moments of confidence shown by the visitors.
It appeared as though the Frenchman had begun his vacation early during the Eagles’ opening game, when Mateta slipped past him to sneak the ball past Robin Olsen.
It’s possible that Clement Lenglet’s final Aston Villa game was played.
After sending the defender on loan to Barcelona for the previous two seasons, it is evident that the club wants to cut Lenglet, which gives Villa pause when deciding whether to buy the 28-year-old on a permanent basis.