Unai Emery’s snub in Aston Villa vs. Manchester City has put Nicolo Zaniolo out of the picture for good.

Following his rejection by Unai Emery on Wednesday (6 December) during Aston Villa’s match against Manchester City, Nicolo Zaniolo must undoubtedly be out of the picture at this point.

The Italian international was left off the starting lineup after his performance in Sunday’s 2-2 draw with Bournemouth, so he was forced to watch the entire match from the bench.

The 24-year-old was replaced by defensive midfielder Boubacar Kamara in Villa’s 1-0 victory over the Citizens, and it was evident that the team played better without him. Leon Bailey took on a more adventurous role behind forwards Ollie Watkins.

After coming to Villa Park on a season-long loan from Galatasaray with a decent reputation, Zaniolo’s life hasn’t exactly taken off.

The attacking midfielder, who has five goals in his 12 games for the Turkish side, is well-known for

his inventiveness and keen sense of goal in the closing third.

But that hasn’t proven to be the case so far with the Villans for him, though, after

failing to score a single goal or record an assist in his 16 appearances.

It’s no surprise that Emery didn’t fancy Zaniolo against Man City after hauling him

off at half-time in the draw against Bournemouth – something he has done on several

occasions already this season.

He was replaced by the returning Jacob Ramsey, who looks to have potentially moved

ahead of him after he came off the bench at Villa Park against the Citizens.

After Bailey had previously been jostling with the Italian for a spot in the starting

lineup, he now also appears to have stolen a clear march on him following his recent performances.

The Jamaican international scored the winning goal on Wednesday to go alongside his strike against

Bournemouth, taking him up to eight goals and six assists in his 21 appearances this season.

They are numbers Zaniolo simply can’t contend with. He has averaged 1.8 shots

per game, with only 0.4 of them being on target for a zero per cent conversation rate, having also missed two big chances.

The attacker has averaged just 25.6 touches, a pretty poor pass success rate of 72 per cent and hasn’t created any big chances for his teammates.

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In addition, despite winning 32% of his duels and recording only 0.1 interceptions, 0.6 tackles, 0.6 clearances, and 9.9 possession losses per game, he hasn’t been much of a defensive asset.

Those numbers are just insufficient to get into a Villa team that is blazing through the

Premier League, moving up to third place in the standings after their most recent victory.

Even though Zaniolo is still young in the hardest league to play in, he will need to

step it up when his next opportunity arises because there is fierce competition for spots and he cannot afford to fall behind.

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