Matt Maher: Amadou Onana increasingly looks a £50m player - Aston Villa need him more than ever

“I’m hearing that more and more,” he said. “That means I am getting better and better at my job.”

There could be few arguments there. Even if you did not agree with the view Sunday’s performance was the Belgium international’s best to date, at the very least it could be added to a growing catalogue of impressive displays during the campaign.

Even some of the bare statistics - 90 per cent pass completion, three tackles and four duels won, four recoveries - don't tell the full story of an afternoon when Onana played the role of policeman at St James’s Park.

Former Villa striker Stan Collymore, who watched the match from the away end, later likened the 24-year-old’s use of his imposing six foot, five inch frame to the cartoon character Inspector Gadget.

It was partly intended as a joke but as comparisons go, it wasn't the worst one, such is the regularity with which Onana sticks out a long leg to steal possession from an unsuspecting opponent.

Onana’s dominance of midfield and the disciplined manner in which he protected the defence helped Villa record perhaps their most important win of the season to date. Boss Unai Emery now needs him to keep delivering and most crucially of all, stay fit for the months ahead.

Sunday was his first start since returning from a minor knock sustained in last month’s 4-0 defeat at Arsenal and the timing could hardly have been better, on an afternoon which saw Youri Tielemans hobble off a fortnight after Boubacar Kamara was lost for the season and a week after John McGinn picked up an injury which will probably keep him out until March.

Not since his first few months at Villa, following a club-record £50million move from Everton in the summer of 2024, has Onana been more vital.

His primary role is the same as it was upon signing, to fill the void left by an injured Kamara.

The latter missed the opening months of last season as he continued recovery from knee ligament surgery but his return in October, coupled with injuries from Onana, saw the new man pushed down the pecking order.

His first season at Villa was by no means bad. The question was whether it was the kind of campaign you expected from the club’s most expensive-ever signing?

Onana made only 20 Premier League starts and missed three periods with injury, the longest almost two months, which impacted his form.

This season, as so often seems the case with players under Emery’s guidance, his performance and consistency levels have markedly improved.

One of the key factors in the manager’s decision to sign Onana was the belief he could play alongside Kamara and for the biggest matches of the season he has chosen to play them together, to great effect.

Onana shone in home wins over Manchester City and Arsenal, while his half-time exit last month at the Emirates, after an opening period when the visitors had been marginally the better team, was an undoubted factor in their second half collapse.

Sunday was his first effort at flying solo this season but a more than encouraging start, proof if any were really needed the admittedly painful loss of Kamara need not be the season-defining moment some of the more overly dramatic sections of the fanbase believed it to be.

In truth, the past week as a whole should have soothed fears Villa’s season might be at risk of crumbling.

The 1-0 home defeat to Everton might have been jarring but was only their fourth loss since August. They have since claimed two wins during the most arduous five-day period of the season so far. 

If their energy and morale was to sag, it would surely have done so through the 3,600-mile journey which took them to and from Turkey and then Tyneside.

Instead, watching them walk off the St James’s Park pitch on Sunday, it was difficult to recall a time they had looked stronger. Emery was again batting back questions about the title race.

Confidence and optimism have been restored. Onana has an increasingly important role in ensuring they remain.