Aston Villa defender Ezri Konsa is 'showing signs of getting back to his best', Dan Bardell of The Athletic says. 

The lowdown

Konsa and his central defensive partner Tyrone Mings kept a clean sheet on Friday night as Villa beat Southampton 1-0 on home soil.

Jacob Ramsey's first-half goal was enough to secure three points that elevate Steven Gerrard's side to 13th in the table.

Konsa's place in the starting line-up looked under threat when he was left on the bench for the game against Everton last month, but summer signing Diego Carlos then picked up an injury.

The latest

After the game, Bardell took to Twitter to give Konsa credit after some 'very critical' comments previously.

He also challenged the Englishman to maintain this positive form going forward.

He wrote: "Special mention to Konsa over the last two games, I was very critical of him, but he’s been showing signs of getting back to his best. Hope it can be maintained."

The verdict

Konsa produced what was, according to SofaScore, his strongest performance of the season against the Saints, earning a rating of 7.0/10.

The 24-year-old won all three of the ground duels he contested, and also prevailed in four of his five aerial battles. That works out as an overall duel success rate of 87.5%.

Konsa was also alert to snuff out the danger on a number of occasions too, coming up with five clearances.

This was the first time all season that Villa had managed to shut out the opposition, and so in that sense, it could prove to be a foundation to kick-start their season.