Aston Villa star's exploits v Spurs surely puts controversial Birmingham City talk to bed | OneFootball

Emi Buendia has recently been the subject of a potentially controversial move across the Second City

Birmingham City and Aston Villa's recent form has been rather contrasting in a bid to achieve their respective aims in both the Premier League and Championship.

Under the management of Unai Emery, the Villans are looking to continue their three-season-long streak as European contenders, having featured in all of the UEFA Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League under the Spaniard.

There is hope that, one day, Blues can rejoin their cross-city rivals in the Premier League for the first time since May 2011, having been the beneficiaries of Knighthead Capital Management's continued investment into on and off-pitch matters at St. Andrew's @ Knighthead Park.

At the beginning of the season, it looked as if Chris Davies' side would be able to back up the unprecedented expectation levels placed on their shoulders after a raft of high-profile incomings such as Kyogo Furuhashi. However, such fortunes are yet to transpire as they currently find themselves in 17th after 10 Championship encounters, albeit the division remains extremely wide-open at this stage.

Meanwhile, Emery's side have been able to put an extremely restricted and frustrating summer transfer window and opening month of the season behind them in recent matches, emerging victorious in five successive games across domestic and European competitions, with the latter of those coming through a 2-1 comeback success over Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday afternoon.

One man has somewhat been at the front and centre of said upsurge at Villa Park despite not playing each and every minute, and it has surely quashed any talk of a controversial move from B6 to B9.

Emi Buendia has surely quashed Aston Villa, Birmingham City transfer talk with recent performances

It looked as though Emi Buendia's spell with Villa was coming to an end this summer. However, the Argentinian has emerged from the shadows after a difficult period and become an integral squad player in recent times.

At 28, he is now one of the more senior figures in B6, but has found himself swimming against the tide in the past two full seasons as a result of an ACL injury and transfer interest, particularly after an uninspiring loan spell at Bayer Leverkusen in the second half of last term after the penning of a new contract.

It must be said that Buendia was a key cog in Villa's initial resurgence following Emery's appointment in November 2022, with he and Ollie Watkins, in particular, two creative forces who spearheaded a remarkable run towards a first European birth since 2009 after being left in grave danger of relegation under Steven Gerrard.

Yet, despite the fact Villa's squad was looking rather threadbare in specific areas, his immediate future remained in doubt amid interest from newly-promoted Leeds United, and as it transpired post-Deadline Day, Birmingham City.

Contrasting reports have since emerged surrounding a controversial transfer, and a potential first deal between the Second City clubs in five years, largely down to PSR concerns, as well as the potential of Buendia being handed yet another contract extension as he recently stated his desire to remain with the claret and blue outfit for some time.

He has since repaid Emery's faith in bucketloads, sparking a first win of the league season against Fulham on September 28th, with a goal and assist coming in the opening six minutes of his substitute cameo, before opening the scoring with a tidy finish against Feyenoord days later.

Indeed, his latest contribution also came off the bench as, just 16 minutes after replacing Evan Guessand in the North London wet, the £33m signing of four years ago rewarded stellar work from full-backs Matty Cash and Lucas Digne as he coolly found the bottom-left-hand corner to secure another three-point haul, as well as his second goal in four seasons at Spurs' modern home.

With Villa still on the European trail too, Buendia is likely to receive many further starts or substitute cameos in the coming months, meaning Davies may have to look elsewhere when it comes to solving Blues' creative woes.

In fairness to the 40-year-old, Saturday's 3-2 home defeat to Hull City showcased a marked improvement in terms of chance creation, with all of Paik Seung-Ho, Demarai Gray, Patrick Roberts, Keshi Anderson, and Jay Stansfield looking to make things happen against the Tigers.

A position of 21st in terms of shots on target per game despite creating the sixth-highest number of big chances in the division is a rather alarming contrast.

16 of those 23 big chances have also been spurned, although it does give an indication that several players are getting into the right areas, with Kyogo the main culprit in this sense, as the Japanese forward still awaits his first league goal.

Gray and Roberts have shown their top-flight quality in recent matches, whilst Anderson proved a handful on Saturday after returning from injury.

In the eyes of many, Blues have been left to solve an attacking conundrum for some time, particularly after operating with two 'number 10s' last season, of whom Willum Willumsson is currently sidelined after being the subject of mixed reviews, whilst Kieran Dowell returned to Rangers.

However, whilst Blues may look to add extra reinforcements to their creative department, an eye-catching move for the one-time Championship Player of the Season and Villa playmaker looks extremely unlikely at this moment in time.