Aston Villa ended up having a rather busy final day of the recent summer transfer window.
Not just in terms of seeing the club secure deals for Leander Dendoncker and Jan Bednarek but also by batting away three bids from Arsenal for Douglas Luiz.
Another deal they were linked with on the day that ultimately didn’t get completed, which we feel is a good thing for the club, is their proposed move for Tottenham Hotspur winger Lucas Moura.
With 204 appearances for Spurs under his belt, the 30-year-old has scored 38 goals and delivered 27 assists in the process.
Having only played 12 minutes of league action for Antonio Conte’s side across their two opening league games of the season, this shows whereabouts he is in the pecking order.
Despite his occasional usefulness in front of goal during his time with the north London club, his previous league campaign with the Lilywhites proved why Villa were right not to launch a late summer move for him.
To compare his previous league season with current Villa attacker Emi Buendia’s, the Brazilian racked up fewer shots at goal (44 vs 38) than the Argentine, as well as making fewer shot-creating actions (74 vs 63), as well as fewer key passes (45 vs 33) than him.
From a defensive point of view, the Spurs figure won fewer tackles (31 vs 14), made fewer successful pressures (108 vs 68) and made fewer blocks (24 vs 18) than Buendia, which ultimately shows how ineffective Moura is with and without the ball compared to the current Villa attacker.
Despite being described as being a “nightmare” to defend against in training by Eric Dier, it seems as though Villa could have been the ones having nightmares if they had secured a deal for the £80k-per-week Brazilian at the end of the summer transfer window.
