The on-loan Arsenal striker was ineffective once again – Brighton may wish they’d let him reunite with Steve Bruce at Aston Villa.
Aston Villa may be 10 points behind Fulham in the final Championship play-off place despite a remarkable run of six wins in seven games but it’s another statistic that sums up why Steve Bruce’s side fell so far adrift of contention, the Birmingham Mail report.
Scoring just 41 goals in 39 Championship games, only five sides have found the back of the net on fewer occasions this season. Two of the profligate quintet, Wigan Athletic and Rotherham United, are either doomed or relegated already.
Therefore, it’s easy to claim that Villa were another prolific striker away from legitimately challenging for the top six this season. Despite Jonathan Kodjia netting 40 per cent of their league goals, January addition Scott Hogan perhaps arrived too late while that 10 point gap to Fulham may have been closer had Ross McCormack not flopped so spectacularly.
However, that does not mean that manager Steve Bruce will regret not going all out for Chuba Akpom in January. According to the Birmingham Mail, Bruce was interested in signing the young striker from Arsenal after working together at Hull City last season.
Instead, Brighton nabbed the 21-year-old on loan. But they’ll probably wish they hadn’t bothered. After seven ineffective substitute appearances, Chris Hughton was forced to bite the bullet and include Akpom in his starting XI for the first-team against Blackburn Rovers following an injury to Sam Baldock.
And the smattering of boos that rang around the Amex as he was hooked just prior to the hour speak volumes about the quality of his performance. Strike partner Glenn Murray may have described Akpom’s critics as ‘fickle’, as reported by The Argus, but the stats speak for themselves.
In 58 minutes against Rovers, Akpom managed zero shots, 12 touches and a worse pass completion rate than any other outfield starter.
Villa may have been one prolific goalscorer away from the play-offs but, clearly, Akpom is not the ‘one that got away’.
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