First full 90 for 'excellent' England midfielder Barkley at Villa Park pleases Hatters boss

Luton boss Rob Edwards​ was pleased with a first 90 minutes of the season for midfielder Ross Barkley during Sunday’s 3-1 defeat at Aston Villa.

The 29-year-old had started twice for Town so far this term, in the defeats at Chelsea and West Ham United, before he was ruled out for a month due to injury.

Back with cameos against Tottenham Hotspur and Nottingham Forest, the latter where he ran the show in the closing stages, he was then named in the XI at Villa Park at the weekend.

The former Everton and Chelsea player had four shots on the afternoon, making one key pass, with a passing accuracy of 85.3 percent, having the most touches by a visiting player as well.

The other side of his game was good too, two tackles, one interception and one clearance, as he completed a first full game in the top flight since May 2021 when part of Aston Villa’s 2-1 win at Everton.

Barkley finished strongly too, almost making it 3-2 in injury time, as pressing high, he won the ball back only to see his shot charged down, along with Elijah Adebayo’s follow up.

On his display, Edwards said: “I thought Ross was excellent, really, really good.

“He was good with the ball as Villa, they squeeze you, they squeeze the pitch.

"As soon as you win the ball back their back-line squeezes high, it gives you no time.

"Ross is someone that can handle the ball, try and take a little bit of pressure away and try to give you some possession.

"It’s hard here, hard for us here to control any kind of spells of the game, but Ross was probably key to that if we were going to get any kind of possession.”

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