Aston Villa forward Ollie Watkins offered a strong assessment of our 3-3 draw with Brentford, as he expressed his disappointment with the result.
Villa were in control after 47 minutes as we made it 2-0 and limited Brentford’s attacking threat, but having conceded three goals in the space of nine minutes, we eventually had to respond and fight back to rescue a point.
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It was a frustrating watch as the outcome could prove to be decisive in our pursuit of a top-four finish in the Premier League this season as well as Champions League qualification, and Watkins didn’t hide his disappointment with how things played out on Saturday afternoon.
The 28-year-old scored a brace on his return to the side after injury, and although he was keen to stress that he includes himself in his analysis in terms of Villa not being good enough this weekend, he was clearly annoyed with our inability to keep things tight at the back as we conceded soft goals once again.
“It’s frustrating,” he said, as quoted by BBC Sport. “We lacked that big team mentality where they kill games off which is really disappointing. I’m not belittling my team. I’m part of it. I feel we need to somehow figure out when we’re 2-0 up how to just shut up shop.
“I felt when it went to 3-3 that we would go on and win. We had a lot of the ball and we were creating chances. There is a lot of football to be played. We’re battling with Tottenham who have got a great squad. It’s going to be tight. We need to win the next six games.
“Two-nil is always a dangerous scoreline. We came out in the second half and scored and then we seemed to relax as a team. I don’t know if it’s the scoreline or what but we always come out slow. I said to the boys at the start of the second half we need to start quick.
“It’s poor. It was too easy for them to get in and score. It’s really disappointing because it could have been a really massive three points. We’ve been 2-0 up against Manchester United away and conceded silly goals. We have done it here today.
“We’ve got a point but it should have been three. These are the games we need to be winning. That’s what the top team do. They finish it off, kill it off. They are smart. Maybe we just don’t have that maturity yet or game intelligence.”
It’s hard to disagree with anything Watkins said, as if Villa want to compete at the top level on a consistent basis, capitulations like this simply can’t happen as we ended up throwing away points.
As Emery has stressed all season though, it is a process that we’re adapting and adjusting to as we continue to progress and develop, and hopefully these are crucial experiences that we learn from and prevent from happening again.
Whether it’s being stronger defensively to see out games or going on to kill off the opposition, which we have done this season too, it has to be more consistent if we are to sustain our improvement.