In an otherwise disappointing season for Aston Villa, £11 million summer signing Jonathan Kodjia has been somewhat of a beacon of light for the Villa Park outfit, with his goals helping propel Villa to 15th in the table after he opened the scoring against Bristol City in his team’s 2-0 win earlier this week.
Kodjia, formerly with Bristol City, scored his 12th goal of the season against Lee Johnson’s side having earlier missed a penalty.
With Ross McCormack, Jordan Ayew and Rudy Gestede all leaving the club in January, coupled with new signing Scott Hogan being ruled out with injury, Kodjia has been Villa’s leading man for most of the season and has stepped up to the plate in no uncertain terms when goals have been at a premium for Villa.
After going on a winless run of 10 games in the league, Saturday’s victory against Derby County followed by the Bristol City win was vital for the support and Bruce was quick to pay credit to the striker.
Bruce told the Birmingham Mail:
He can drive us all mad at times, no question about that, but look at the goals that he’s got. I think that’s his 12th in 24 games or something like that. That’s not bad at all so fair play to him. It’s not easy. He was devastated at half time (after missing the penalty) but he’s come back. He had a header just before his goal that that nearly went in and he’s got us a good goal again.
