Dean Smith’s Aston Villa have been linked with a loan move for Michy Batshuayi, who made a big impact at Crystal Palace last term.
With Aston Villa set to continue their battle against Premier League relegation without Wesley Moraes, Dean Smith is likely to seek reinforcements up front this January, and one player linked with Villa Park is Chelsea’s Michy Batshuayi.
The Brazil striker will be out for the season after suffering knee ligament damage in Wednesday’s 2-1 win at Burnley, it was confirmed on Friday (BBC Sport) – he scored the opener but was hurt in a tackle with Clarets defender Ben Mee.
The day before, a report from Sky Sports News claimed that Villa had enquired after Batshuayi on loan – they were said to already be in the market for a centre-forward but opted to step up their efforts in the wake of Wesley facing a lengthy layoff.
Batshuayi has struggled for game time at Chelsea for much of his career at Stamford Bridge – he’s been on the Blues’ books since his reported £33million move (BBC Sport) in the summer of 2016 and in that time he has made a relatively low 74 appearances, though he’s still managed to claim 24 goals and six assists (Transfermarkt).
This term, meanwhile, he has clocked up just 369 minutes of action in 17 senior appearances, but still managed five goals and two assists (Transfermarkt), not to mention his impressive Belgium record (16 goals in 29 games) and while out on loan too.
While his loan at Valencia was little to write home about (3 goals in 23 appearances), he was impressive at Borussia Dortmund (9 goals and 1 assist in 14 appearances) and, perhaps more relevant to Villa, 6 in 13 for relegation-battling Crystal Palace in the second half of last season.
Roy Hodgson hailed Batshuayi’s impact shortly after joining the Eagles on loan when he produced a moment of magic to set up their second goal against Fulham in a 2-0 win on 2 February, his effort parried by Sergio Rico into the path of Jeffrey Schlupp – the victory helped pull them clear of the bottom three en route to survival (BBC Sport).
“He’s only just been at the club for 24 hours… so it was an incredible impact,” Hodgson was quoted as saying by Reuters after the game. “He has a record of scoring in almost every debut he’s had for other teams, so that was in my mind and he almost kept that record going.
“He got the assist as the goalkeeper couldn’t take the shot and Jeff did ever so well to follow it up and tap it in, but it was strong of him to come in at such short notice and do what he did.”
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