While there were many positives in Aston Villa’s win over Bournemouth, one could potentially really stand out for Unai Emery given our recent run.
Villa secured a 3-0 win over the Cherries on Saturday, extending our unbeaten run to four games having scored seven goals and conceded just one, while keeping three clean sheets.
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Naturally, the improvement defensively will have pleased Emery after leaky performances prior to that, but there was another integral part of the manner of the victory that really stood out.
Prior to Saturday, Ollie Watkins had scored six of our 10 goals in the last seven games, with two of those other four coming in the form of own goals.
While it’s great to see him find consistency and be decisive on a regular basis, there was an obvious need for others to chip in and contribute more, to lessen the burden on his shoulders to score our goals.
Emery himself made that one of his demands in a recent press conference as he stressed the importance of others adding goals, as ultimately it makes us a more dynamic, unpredictable attacking unit that can cause any side problems.
So with that in mind, it was great to see Douglas Luiz, Jacob Ramsey and Emiliano Buendia score our goals this weekend, and while it’s crucial that Watkins maintains his form too, it’s fundamental that others help him out and provide a real attacking threat in and around the box.
Luiz has two goals and four assists in 14 Premier League games since Emery took charge, compared to one goal and one assist in 12 outings prior to his arrival.
Buendia has four goals in those 14 games, compared to just one in 13 before Emery.
And while it’s been a bit slower for Ramsey, who has two goals and one assist in 11 games under Emery compared to one goal and one assist in 13 before him, he showed a big improvement this weekend in terms of driving at the defence and getting into dangerous pockets of space to provide a genuine goalscoring threat.
While Watkins provided an assist for Ramsey’s goal, we saw Leon Bailey chip in with an assist of his own for the opener, and so it’s vital that we find a balance across the frontline and in midfield that allows us to get goals and assists from everywhere and that will undoubtedly lead to better results.
Again, it’s imperative that Watkins continues his fine form in front of goal and leads the line well, but with the attacking quality at Emery’s disposal and the ability of the players mentioned above to make a decisive impact in the final third, it was really pleasing to see them all chip in on Saturday to secure another important, and impressive, home win.
