Aston Villa midfielder Jack Grealish heads into Friday night’s Premier League encounter on a 20-game losing streak in the English top flight.
The former England Under-21 international’s losing streak dates back to the end of the 2014-15 season, whilst he lost all 16 appearances he made the following campaign when the Villans were relegated with just 17 points.
Grealish and Villa have started the new campaign with back-to-back defeats, at Tottenham Hotspur and Bournemouth respectively. The midfielder has played the full 90 minutes in both games.
Much has been made of the 23-year-old’s Premier League record on social media of late. In Grealish’s defence, he was playing with an Aston Villa side that were awful in both 2014-15 and during their relegation campaign.
Including the first two games of this season, Aston Villa have lost 31 of their last 42 Premier League games (74%). Though, Jack Grealish was involved in 20 of those, meaning the West Midlands club have avoided defeat in 11 of the 22 games (50%) without him making it onto the pitch.
Here are the numbers from Jack Grealish’s 20-game Premier League losing streak:
| Date | Opponent | Venue | Result | Minutes Played |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17/08/2019 | Bournemouth | Home | 1-2 | 90 |
| 10/08/2019 | Tottenham Hotspur | Away | 1-3 | 90 |
| 15/05/2016 | Arsenal | Away | 0-4 | 15 |
| 23/04/2016 | Southampton | Home | 2-4 | 22 |
| 09/04/2016 | Bournemouth | Home | 1-2 | 6 |
| 02/04/2016 | Chelsea | Home | 0-4 | 24 |
| 02/01/2016 | Sunderland | Away | 1-3 | 56 |
| 28/12/2015 | Norwich City | Away | 0-2 | 10 |
| 13/12/2015 | Arsenal | Home | 0-2 | 12 |
| 21/11/2015 | Everton | Away | 0-4 | 74 |
| 02/11/2015 | Tottenham Hotspur | Away | 1-3 | 65 |
| 24/10/2015 | Swansea City | Away | 1-3 | 74 |
| 17/10/2015 | Chelsea | Away | 0-2 | 90 |
| 03/10/2015 | Stoke City | Home | 0-1 | 45 |
| 26/09/2015 | Liverpool | Away | 2-3 | 69 |
| 19/09/2015 | West Bromwich Albion | Home | 0-1 | 90 |
| 13/09/2015 | Leicester City | Away | 2-3 | 90 |
| 22/08/2015 | Crystal Palace | Away | 1-2 | 90 |
| 24/05/2015 | Burnley | Home | 0-1 | 90 |
| 16/05/2015 | Southampton | Away | 1-6 | 82 |
It’s worth noting that Jack Grealish only started 13 of those 20 defeats. It’s fair to say he was given minimal opportunity to turn the 0-2 loss to Arsenal around in 10 minutes, though Villa were 0-0 at home to Stoke City when he was introduced at half-time in their 0-1 loss back in October 2015.