Back in the Aston Villa side this weekend after his injury setback, Ollie Watkins wasted little time in rediscovering his goalscoring form against Brentford.
The 28-year-old was absent in midweek due to a hamstring issue, but fortunately it was only a temporary stint on the sidelines as he returned to the starting XI on Saturday afternoon.
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Albeit it was eventually overshadowed by the result as Villa surrendered a two-goal lead and dropped two points, Watkins bagged a brace to make it 18 goals and 10 assists in the Premier League this season thus far, setting a new club record as no other player has had as many goal involvements in a single campaign previously.
Watkins has been sensational this year. With a lot to prove despite his impressive progression since joining us in September 2020, the 28-year-old still had room for improvement to become a clinical and consistent Premier League striker.
He has gone through those gears under the stewardship of Unai Emery, who has helped take his game to the next level, and we’re seeing him deliver and fire us towards loftier ambitions this year.
While he continues to fight for a place in the England squad this summer, Watkins also showed his mentality and determination to be successful with his comments off the pitch this weekend, as he shared a strong post-game assessment of our draw with Brentford.
Having thrown away a commanding position, there was disappointment and frustration that we didn’t seal all three points on Saturday. That said, we did show maturity and resilience to recover and at least salvage a draw, but that wasn’t good enough for Watkins, and rightly so.
“It’s really disappointing,” Watkins told VillaTV. “As a team, we’ve come so far from when the manager joined – 17th in the league to fighting for Champions League football. Which is unbelievable. But we’ve got here for a reason and that’s being strong, seeing games out and we didn’t do that here.
“It’s happened to us a few times over the season now, Man Utd away on Boxing Day, 2-0 up cruising, came out second half lackadaisical – all over the pitch, I’m not saying anyone specifically, me myself.
“We’ve just got to be more consistent and be that horrible team to play against when we’re ahead 2-0.
“It’s my best tally. I felt this season I had a lot to prove to people and I still do, so I’m just trying to focus on bringing the best I can to the team. Proving people wrong, scoring goals and trying to break some records.
“But, above all, trying to help the team get into the Champions League, which will be massive for us, from where we’ve come and when I joined the club, I didn’t expect to hopefully be playing Champions League football.
“But I’m very confident in the manager and the squad that we can do that.
“I’m really looking forward to the next six games we’ve got in the league and Europa Conference League.”
As he hits what are hopefully his peak years, Watkins still has so much to give Villa and he will want to achieve big things in the coming years. However, that will hopefully start in the next two months as we continue to pursue Champions League football and a trophy in the Europa Conference League.
Watkins’ goals will help fire us towards that, but it’s his developing leadership and winning mentality that will also hopefully help his teammates reach those targets, as he continues to write his name into the Villa history books as one of our most prolific strikers.
Aston Villa players to record 28+ goal involvements in a single @PremierLeague season:
Ollie Watkins
End of list. pic.twitter.com/Ai4ciLfWT3
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) April 6, 2024
