Aston Villa moved into sixth place in the Premier League on Saturday with a comfortable 3-0 win over Crystal Palace.
Despite a first half red card for central defender Tyrone Mings, Villa still managed to overcome a tepid Palace side with remarkable attacking intent.
And while Jack Grealish or Bertrand Traore may be stealing the headlines and highlight reels each week, much of Villa’s success in December has been down to the goalscoring of Anwar El Ghazi.
In their last four games, Villa have beaten Wolves, drawn with Burley and thumped West Brom and now Palace by three goals to nil.
At the heart of those performances has been El Ghazi’s goalscoring. In that four-game stretch the Dutch forward has scored four goals.
When we break that down to how many minutes he’s actually played in those games, it works out at a goal every 70 minutes of football.
For a bit of context, it’s worth bearing in mind that the Premier League’s top goalscorer this season, Mohamed Salah, is averaging a goal every 89 minutes of football.
The real test for Villa and their in-form forward will be how they cope in the games to come before the end of the year and going into January.
Villa’s next top-flight test will be against Chelsea on 28 December, then Manchester United welcome them to Old Trafford on New Year’s day before an FA Cup clash with Liverpool.
Mohamed Salah 
Liverpool 
Tottenham 
Crystal Palace 
Man City 
Man Utd 
