Aston Villa enjoyed a 3-0 win over West Bromwich Albion on Sunday night and Bertrand Traore came in for plenty of praise from Villa fans on social media for his impressive performance.
The 25-year-old had a hand in two goals at The Hawthorns, producing a brilliant assist for Anwar El Ghazi with a whipped cross and scoring a fantastic effort himself, calmly passing the ball into the back of the net and leaving Sam Johnstone flat-footed.
Traore hasn’t had the best start to life in England since joining from Lyon for £16.5m in September, but he showed his worth in the Midlands derby in marked contrast to his much-maligned previous display against Burnley.
He has made 12 appearances in all competitions for Villa this season, scoring two goals and supplying two assists. He bagged his first Premier League goal for the club last night and recorded his first assist since November. [Transfermarkt]
Against West Brom, the Burkina Faso international played for 90 minutes, had 78 touches, completed 92.5% of his 53 passes, created two chances, had three shots (two on target), made one interception, delivered four accurate crosses out of six, made one clearance, had three successful dribbles and won two freekicks (WhoScored)
These Villa fans on Twitter commended an “awesome” display from Traore, who one supporter said had gone from “carthorse to killer” in the space of a few days.
Absolutely delighted for Anwar El Ghazi & Traore. Both put in MOTM performances last night, as did Grealish.
Shout out also to Kourtney Hause for really upping his game. Solid performance.
All the team were excellent last night.
Could go 2nd with 2 to play!#avfc #utv
— Bairdy (@dickiebaird) December 21, 2020
Don’t think I’ve seen a bigger contrast in performances than Traoré against Wolves vs. last night. Carthorse to killer in a week. #avfc
— James Donaghy (@thecoldgun) December 21, 2020
Traore's best game for us by a mile looks like he is starting to settle in nicely 👊. The penny seems to have dropped for Ghazi and has finally realised he has to work hard. Grealish was outstanding again. Easy win in the end over a very poor baggies #avfc
— Robert Kench (@avfcrobbo) December 21, 2020
So happy for Traore getting a goal and assist tonight, it was always gonna take him a big longer to settle In then the other signings #AVFC
— ……………….. (@Boutthatpaper) December 20, 2020
The best part of tonight’s result is the response our wingers had after a frustrating result against Burnley.
Major credit to El Ghazi and Traore, who have silenced any criticism thrown their way. #avfc
— Cole Pettem (@TalkAstonVilla) December 20, 2020
Everyone played well today. Traore and Anwar were awesome, jack was jack, defense was solid and midfield was great. Not many chances for Ollie but still did decent off the ball. But stand out performances for me that aren't being spoken about much are these two. #WBAAVL #AVFC pic.twitter.com/ZodDCfvySk
— Dan (@Dajw_99) December 20, 2020
Dominant performance, big gap between the first goal and killing the game off but the result never in doubt. Great to see El Ghazi and Traore on form. #AVFC #UTV #AstonVilla
— Liam Mucklow (@imucklow90) December 20, 2020
In other news, Aston Villa may need to forget about signing this World Cup finalist.
