With his goal against Arsenal in Aston Villa’s 2-2 draw with the Gunners this past weekend, Ollie Watkins extended an impressive goalscoring record with the club.
It was a difficult evening at the Emirates for Villa, as the home side applied significant and sustained pressure, and having opened up a two-goal advantage, it looked as though the game had slipped away from us.
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However, in the space of eight second-half minutes, we were back level, as the resilience, character and belief within this squad came to the fore to battle back and secure a share of the spoils.
Youri Tielemans halved our deficit on the hour mark in a critical moment in the game, but it was Watkins who drew us level and earned us a point as we continue to build momentum with a strong start to the new year through January.
It was a significant goal for our talismanic frontman too, as it was his 10th Premier League goal of the campaign, and that made it double figures in five consecutive league seasons for the 29-year-old, which is a remarkably consistent return.
Watkins will likely be the first to admit that he could, and perhaps should, have a bigger goal tally, as he hasn’t always been clinical enough and has been guilty of missing some big chances during his time with us.
Nevertheless, in addition to his excellent work ethic and movement off the ball, which not only creates openings for himself as he has great awareness in his positioning to find and exploit space, but it also helps create for others, either directly or indirectly, as evidenced by the number of assists he provides too, and so that level of consistency in such a competitive league is nothing short of being highly impressive.
The Villa forward is coming under increasing pressure this year to fend off the competition of Jhon Duran, and that should be seen as a positive as it forces both players to be at the top of their respective games as they have to deliver when they’re involved.
Ultimately, the hope is that they both maintain the consistency that they’ve shown in front of goal this season, and Unai Emery will undoubtedly hope that he can find a way for the pair to co-exist in the starting line-up when needed too.
For Watkins though, he absolutely still needs to be more ruthless in the final third, but in addition to his work-rate, movement, ability to create and his all-round suitability to Emery’s preferred style of play and system, bagging double-figure goal tallies every year in the Premier League is a feat to be proud of.