It simply wasn’t Ollie Watkins’ day as Aston Villa fell to defeat to Arsenal, with our talismanic frontman guilty of key misses that ultimately shaped the game.
Villa suffered a 2-0 loss to the Gunners this weekend, but having enjoyed spells of dominating the clash, we had our chances to put ourselves in a commanding position with the encounter still goalless.
READ MORE: Villa ace continues to shine in key role as he grows in confidence and influence
After scuffing his first effort wide of the post despite having the goal open in front of him, Watkins was denied by a fantastic David Raya save in the second half, albeit he will feel he should have buried that chance too.
It proved to be costly as we were punished for our lack of end product as Arsenal scored twice soon after to take home all three points, and so there was an element of frustration over what was a missed opportunity.
Nevertheless, having returned late after his international exploits earlier this summer and with no pre-season football under his belt, it’s clear that Watkins is still playing catch up in terms of fitness and sharpness and it reinforced the impact that missing the summer schedule has going into a new campaign.
That was evident in his performance again this weekend as his touch was heavy and his timing looks a little out of sync still in terms of his movement off the ball and his understanding with his teammates as they search for him either as an option to hold play up or to spin into the channels and stretch defences.
However, the expectation is that he’ll bounce back from this, and as he continues to get minutes and get back to peak condition, we’ll see the best of him again as he’ll no doubt be our talisman up top and spearhead of our attack in the coming weeks and months.
Villa skipper John McGinn conceded that Watkins was negatively impacted by his misses during the loss, but he backed his teammate to show his quality over the course of the season and defended him after what was ultimately just a bad day at the office.
“He’s frustrated and gutted,” he said after the game, as seen in the video below. “He’s very hard on himself, it’s our job to get our arm around him, remind him of his importance to us, how many good moments/goals he’s given us, performances, work-rate. I can’t speak highly enough of him. He’s very down in there, disappointed in himself, but over the season he’s got nothing to apologise for, he’ll give us big moments in the future.”
“Ollie is down right now and its our job to pull him back up… he’s got nothing to apologise for”
John McGinn tells @CarrieBrownTV that the Villa team and management will rally around Ollie Watkins and remind him of who he is after his big misses today.#beINPL #AVFC pic.twitter.com/dczBCkBQIm
— beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS_EN) August 24, 2024
Villa travel to face Leicester City next weekend, and the script is hopefully written for Watkins to produce an immediate response to his disappointment this weekend and get off the mark in a Villa win.
As Unai Emery stressed in his post-match press conference, the fundamental point is that we created those opportunities, as if we were struggling to even create openings and chances, that would be the bigger concern.
However, as we gradually improve, both in terms of being sharper and building chemistry within the team again to play with cohesion, fluidity and rhythm, Watkins will get more chances, and after his goalscoring exploits last season, everyone will back him to get amongst the goals sooner rather than later and put this disappointing chapter in the campaign firmly behind him.
