Samir Nasri’s career has seemed to be on a downhill path ever since he secured his first Premier League title with Manchester City.
After that success, injuries and an apparent lack of focus blighted his career in Manchester, and he soon found himself fall down the pecking order as new signings took their places as City’s favoured attacking players.
A loan move to Sevilla seemed a clear indication that City no longer considered Nasri, once one of a long list of French players dubbed the ‘new Zidane’, an elite player who could contribute to their Premier League campaign.
However, the Frenchman has been on song in Spain, and become a key player in Sevilla’s unexpected title charge.
Against Villarreal on Sunday, Nasri again ran the show for Sevilla as they chased a win to keep in touch with Real Madrid at the top of the table.
As the stats show, Nasri’s performance in the attacking third was among the best La Liga has seen this season.
Samir Nasri: Completed more passes in the final third vs Villarreal (55) than any other player has in a La Liga match this season pic.twitter.com/Lm5wlUppKs
— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) February 6, 2017
The only disappointment in Nasri’s display against Villarreal was a missed penalty that could have given Sevilla a crucial win, a miss that will almost certainly prove costly in the title chase.
However, his overall performance shows that the Frenchman still has the ability to be an influential, incisive attacking player.
