Luke Hatfield has called on Emiliano Buendia to start showing some more consistency for Aston Villa.

Buendia became the club's record signing when he joined for £33m from Norwich this summer but is yet to hit top form.

What do the stats say about Buendia?

According to WhoScored, the Argentine has been Villa's sixth-best player this season, but that perhaps says more about how below-par the rest of the squad are performing.

Buendia's standout performance came against Brentford on his home debut when he scored a brilliant first goal for the club and was Villa's best player on the day with an impressive rating of 8.13, even though they drew the game courtesy of Ivan Toney's first Premier League goal.

Read More - January Transfer Window 2022: When does it open, when does it close and which players are going to move?

Since that game, Buendia, valued at £31.5m by Transfermarkt, has contributed very little to the cause. He did spend time out of the side after losing his place but returned to the XI for the defeats with Wolves, Arsenal and West Ham.

He did claim an assist for Ollie Watkins in the latter but was substituted just after Ezri Konsa's red card and hasn't played more than 75 minutes in a league game since that draw with Brentford.

p1fjil1i8qj9apre94u1lik1h7gj.jpg

ENTER GIVEAWAY

Hatfield was impressed with Buendia in the 4-1 defeat to the Hammers on Sunday, Villa's fourth straight Premier League defeat, but the Express and Star journalist has urged the former Norwich winger to perform like that on a more regular basis.

What did Hatfield say?

He told GIVEMESPORT: "Buendia is the club-record signing and hasn't really pulled up trees to begin with.

Arsenal ELIMINATE Leeds from Carabao Cup! Full reaction on The Football Terrace...

"I thought he had a good performance against West Ham, he was harsh to be taken off after Konsa's red, but we've got to see it on a consistent basis from him."

Is Buendia in danger of being dropped?

As Hatfield alluded to, he actually performed well against West Ham, which is hard to believe in a 4-1 loss, but the red card played a huge part in the eventual scoreline.

In fact, apart from Watkins (7.35), WhoScored rated Buendia (6.98) as Villa's best performer on the day.

With that in mind, his place in the side shouldn't be anywhere near threat when Aston Villa travel to Southampton on Friday night, although Buendia needs to quickly start showing the form that convinced the Midlands outfit to fork out £33m for him.