They might have stumbled at the weekend, but this season is still looking like it could be a special one for Aston Villa.
Unai Emery has his side third in the Premier League, third in the Europa League and into the next round of the FA Cup.
Moreover, the West Midlanders are playing some of the most scintillating football in the country.
As if that wasn’t enough, Aston Villa are also looking to improve the squad, and if recent reports are to be believed, they might be looking at someone who’d be an even better signing than Tammy Abraham.
Aston Villa target Tammy Abraham upgrade
It’s been a busy month for Aston Villa, with the club already bringing in two youngsters, sending Donyell Malen to AS Roma and appearing intent on signing Abraham.
The Villans’ former loan star has been heavily touted for a return to Villa Park over the last week or so, with some reports claiming his arrival could see Evann Guessand go the other way.
Now, the Englishman would undoubtedly be a great addition to Emery’s side, but it does now look like the club are eyeing up another striker, someone who’d be an even better signing.
At least that is according to a recent report from TEAMtalk, which claims that Aston Villa are interested in Jean-Philippe Mateta.
Yes, according to the report, the West Midlanders have shown an interest in the player, alongside the likes of Juventus and Tottenham Hotspur, and may well have spoken to his camp.
The report does not mention how much the striker might cost, but according to other stories from this week, the Eagles are after a fee of at least £35m.
In all, it could be a complicated and reasonably costly transfer to get over the line, but given Mateta’s immense ability and the fact that he could be an Abraham upgrade, Villa should be all over it.
How Mateta compares to Abraham
Now, the dream scenario for Villa is that they sign both strikers, as two quality goal scorers are always better than one.
However, if the club do only go for one of them, why should it be Mateta?
An “extraordinary” striker in the words of journalist Rory Smith, the first and arguably most important reason is that he’s been performing at a high level in the toughest league in the world for a couple of years now.
For example, since the start of the 23/24 season, he has scored 38 goals and provided eight assists in just 94 Premier League games, totalling 6771 minutes.
That means the Frenchman has averaged a goal involvement every 2,04 games, or every 147.19 minutes, despite playing for a team outside the ‘big six.’
Numbers like those for Palace really help to justify analyst Ben Mattinson’s claim that he is “one of the best strikers in the Premier League”.
Now, Abraham has also been scoring in recent seasons, but Serie A and the Turkish Süper Lig are quality competitions, though not on the level of the Premier League.
More crucially, however, the Englishman has not played in the top flight here since the 20/21 season, when, in 22 appearances, he scored just six goals and provided two assists for a team that won the Champions League that year.
Ultimately, Abraham would be a good signing for Villa; nobody would deny that.
However, due to Mateta’s track record of top performances in recent years and the fact that he is currently Premier League proven, he feels like the far better option.
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