One Aston Villa star has topped the charts for an unwanted statistic in the 2023/24 Premier League season.
Having secured Champions League football with a fourth-place finish in the 2023/24 campaign, Unai Emery couldn’t have asked for much more from his Aston Villa squad.
From Ollie Watkins’ goals to Ezri Konsa’s stability at the back, it was a remarkable team effort to fire the Midlands club back where it belongs among Europe’s elite.
The end of the season saw the individual awards dished out, with Watkins winning the Playmaker of the Season award, and Moussa Diaby claiming the Most Powerful Goal award for his strike against Wolves.
While the chart-topping duo were handed individual prizes to remember the 2023/24 campaign, one Villa star was left having to accept a less desired prize, as Diego Carlos ranked at the top in one unwanted statistic.
Diego Carlos miss against Liverpool ranked the worst of the season
For all of Carlos’ defensive efforts at Villa throughout the campaign, the Brazilian topped the charts when it came to the worst miss of the Premier League campaign.
In Villa’s thrilling 3-3 draw with Liverpool on matchday 37, the centre-back missed an astonishing opportunity to score, unable to get sufficient contact to tap the ball into an open net at Villa Park.
The miss racked up an astonishing 0.95xG, meaning that 95 times out of 100, the defender would have scored from that scenario.
It will be a chance that Carlos will not want to see again, with the faintest of touches denying the 31-year-old the opportunity to score against the Reds.
During Sky Sports’ coverage of the fixture commentator Gary Neville described the miss as “unbelievable” [21:05 13th May]:
“Do you know something, it’s a bad miss, it’s a shocker but he actually nudges Watkins out of the way.
“On the way in, watch him, it’s unbelievable. He shrugs him out of the way with his left arm.”
Diego Carlos will want the opportunity to score again for Aston Villa
Carlos will hope that the miss against Liverpool wasn’t his last significant moment in an Aston Villa shirt, as the Brazilian has been linked with a move away from the club in recent weeks.
It’s speculated that the centre-back could be offloaded this summer in a bid to improve Villa’s PSR situation, as the former Sevilla ace is one of the club’s biggest earners, receiving a weekly wage of £100k-a-week, via Capology.
Carlos will certainly wish for more opportunities to score for the Villans to make up for his absurd miss against Jurgen Klopp’s side, with Watkins perhaps the most frustrated at the goal-scoring scenario.
The defender took it away from the Englishman, who was one goal shy of being the first Villa player to hit 20 Premier League goals, with there now bridges to be rebuilt if he remains at the club after the summer.
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