With Aston Villa’s form slightly wobbling in more recent games, Boxing Day’s trip to the Liberty Stadium to face Swansea City got us back to winning ways.
Conor Hourihane’s second-half goal with 25 minutes remaining in the tie was enough to decide it in favour of Dean Smith’s men in what was largely a pretty level game, with the hosts definitely edging the opening 45.
The big moment in the game came at the death as the hosts won a penalty in the 90th minute and often criticised goalkeeper Orjan Nyland stepped up admirably to protect the clean sheet and pull off the save from Wilfried Bony.
I’m guessing that’s what swung it for statistics website Whoscored as they gave the 28-year-old their star man rating and a very impressive 8.76 score.
Goalscorer Hourihane followed in second spot with 8.05 and the top five featured James Chester (7.82), Alan Hutton (7.66) and Tammy Abraham (7.66).
Also picking up seven-plus scores were James Bree, Yannick Bolasie and Ahmed Elmohamady.
Registering back to back wins as we travel to Preston North End this weekend would top the year off nicely.
