By 
Ahmed Elmohamady has earned his ‘Mr. Consistent’ tag this season at Aston Villa – but more so across the last fourteen games that culminated in the clubs promotion to the Premier League.
Words by Regan Foy | @FindFoy
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Ahmed Elmohamady has truly lived up to his “Mr. Consistent” tag in the latter half of this season, capping an incredible run of performances with an assist that saw Aston Villa take the lead just before half time in the Sky Bet Play-Off Final.
There were times that Elmohamady looked like he might be losing his grip on the right-back slot after one or two bad games in a row saw him dropped to the bench – but the Egyptian international dusted himself off and came back stronger than before.
His run of incredible form coincides with the clubs, showing just what an exceptional serviceman the winger-turned-defender has been to the Aston Villa.
In the 4-0 win against Derby, Ahmed Elmohamady earned himself a 7.57 match rating, bagged an assist and played a full ninety minutes.
From here until the end of the regular season, Ahmed Elmohamady did not miss a minute of Sky Bet Championship football. During this time he racked up another two assists, one in the 3-1 win against Nottingham Forest, before turning provider for Jack Grealish’s ‘goal of the season’ against Rotherham.
Within this run of games after the Derby game, the affectionately nicknamed ‘Elmo’ had five more performances that warranted him receiving a match rating of above seven. His performances against Middlesbrough, Rotherham, Bolton, Leeds and Birmingham were all exemplary from a seasoned defender, and three of those five resulted in clean sheets.
After the two games that the Egyptian had made mistakes in and was subsequently dropped for, Ahmed has rarely put a foot wrong – improving on both his distribution – with his pass success rate rising from 60-77% to 81-95% during the last fourteen games.
His last game of the season, against Derby County in the Play-Off Final, has seen him pick up a 7.5 match rating, and an assist in the process – providing the ball for El Ghazi to head into the County net.
It may be the case that Elmohamady is more of a rotation option at Aston Villa net season with the arrival of Frederic Guilbert likely to see him lose his spot in the starting eleven – but with a consistent performer like Ahmed, you won’t be complaining if he’s at least on the bench.
