The Premier League secured a timely weekend win when Moussa Diaby (£6.5m) chose Aston Villa as his next club, rather than Al-Nassr.
Considering the teams linked with the explosive winger over recent times – including Arsenal, Paris Saint-Germain and Newcastle United – it has to go down as another coup for Unai Emery’s ambitious Villa.
The club-record £51.9m fee follows the captures of Pau Torres (£4.5m) and Youri Tielemans (£6.0m). So can the 24-year-old help Villa break into the top six and what impact will he have in FPL?
We’ll attempt to answer those questions below.
- READ MORE: FPL new signings: Where does Pau Torres fit in at Aston Villa?
- READ MORE: FPL new signings: Is Andre Onana the new go-to goalkeeper?
THE HISTORY
He and Emery have crossed paths before, as the Spaniard was in charge whilst Diaby was a youngster at hometown side PSG. Despite being crowned their 2016 Titi d’Or winner – an annual award for the club’s most promising academy talent – he followed the likes of Kingsley Coman and Christopher Nkunku (£7.5m) in leaving PSG in order to seek regular game time.
| Season | Team | Division | Starts (subs) | Goals | Assists |
| 2022/23 | Bayer Leverkusen | Bundesliga | 33 (0) | 9 | 9 |
| 2021/22 | Bayer Leverkusen | Bundesliga | 32 (0) | 13 | 12 |
| 2020/21 | Bayer Leverkusen | Bundesliga | 28 (4) | 4 | 12 |
| 2019/20 | Bayer Leverkusen | Bundesliga | 18 (10) | 5 | 5 |
| 2018/19 | Paris Saint-Germain | Ligue 1 | 10 (15) | 2 | 6 |
An interesting 2017/18 loan took him to Serie A side Crotone for the campaign’s final months. The coach rated him but limited the youngster to 69 minutes, opting for more experienced names in their relegation battle.
Diaby made the successful move abroad to Bayer Leverkusen in 2019. The four-year spell brought 69 domestic goal involvements and two Champions League strikes, joining two big names in having double-digit goals and assists in three successive seasons.
Meanwhile, Diaby has ten caps for France but is yet to score.
PLAYING STYLE
Diaby is a left-footed dribbler capable of some powerful, drilled shots.
His versatility is an asset to Aston Villa, having started on Leverkusen’s left flank before gradually moving to the right over time.
Above: Moussa Diaby’s strengths and weaknesses according to WhoScored
With this in mind, it’s no wonder that the official Bundesliga website compared him to Arjen Robben in a recent post – although there’s arguably a better resemblance with Mohamed Salah (£12.5m).
In fact, Opta Analyst has 2022/23 graphs that liken Diaby to Salah, Raheem Sterling (£7.0m) and Son Heung-min (£9.0m).
His devastating pace makes him a brilliant asset for counter-attacking. Last season, a recorded speed of 22.68 mph was the Bundesliga’s fourth-fastest.
Also worth noting is that even though his nine goals and nine assists dropped from the 2021/22 campaign, his underlying stats had improved. Instead of an expected goals (xG) overachievement, this time Diaby went under.
| Season | Goals | Expected goals (xG) | Shots | Shots on target | Goals per shot | Shots per 90 |
| 2022/23 | 9 | 11.0 | 79 | 34 | 0.11 | 2.63 |
| 2021/22 | 13 | 8.0 | 53 | 26 | 0.25 | 1.73 |
Amongst all Bundesliga players, he ranked fourth for goal attempts (79) and fifth for putting them on target (34), also sitting favourably for shots per 90 (2.63).
The attacking force of right-back Jeremie Frimpong provided Leverkusen’s width, allowing Diaby to drift more centrally. Does that mean Villa will use Matty Cash (£4.5m) in a similar way, or will the full-back be more defensive to allow Alex Moreno (£5.0m) freedom from the other side?
WHERE MOUSSA DIABY FITS IN AT ASTON VILLA
The rest of this article below is completely free to read but requires a Fantasy Football Scout user account for access – you can get yours at no cost here
