With a hat-trick against Brighton, Aston Villa forward Ollie Watkins backed up his winner at Chelsea last weekend to show signs of his form building.
It had been a frustrating start to the Premier League campaign for the 27-year-old, as although he bagged a hat-trick in our Europa Conference League playoff round, he went without a goal in his first five league outings.
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Naturally, he still made an important impact for the team with two assists along with his tireless defensive work, pace and movement causing opposition defences problems, but Watkins will ultimately continue to be judged on his goalscoring.
Further, for his own confidence, it’s always important that he is consistent in the final third, and we saw just how devastating he can be in front of goal in our 6-1 win over Brighton.
It was a direct, ruthless and clinical team performance from Villa this weekend to sweep aside Roberto De Zerbi’s men, and it was led up top by Watkins who was sensational throughout.
Speaking after the game, the Villa forward praised his teammates, and reiterated that while he’s happy to get on the scoresheet again, it’s made even better that he’s helped us to another important three points.
“I always like to score goals,” he told VillaTV. “I always like to help the team win, which is even better. It’s an all-round great day. It was a big performance from us.
“Brighton are a great team but we always seem to do well against them. Today we got it really right. A really good day, a really good performance, the atmosphere was good and it’s the perfect weekend.
“We got in their faces and didn’t allow them to play their football. They’re very similar to us; they take time on the ball and draw people out of position. We didn’t do that today. From kick-off, we got in their faces, pressed them high and then on the transition we killed them. That was key.
“It could have been seven or eight.”
As we saw as recently as last season, Watkins can be a streaky player in terms of his goalscoring. In a 12-game run last year shortly after Emery’s arrival and the sale of Danny Ings to signal he was our lead man, he scored 11 goals, before ending the campaign with just one in his last seven.
It’s important to reiterate just how important he is for the team even when he’s not scoring though, and that’s reflected in the fact that he has been an ever-present under Emery thus far, and is evidently a fundamental part of his plans moving forward.
While we’ve seen our midfielders and other attackers step up and score goals to show a more dynamic and unpredictable side of our game over the past year, a free-scoring Watkins leading the Villa line is a huge boost for us and our chances of success.
Emery is expected to go with a strong starting line-up against Zrinjski in our Europa Conference League meeting on Thursday night, and it’s hoped that if Watkins gets the nod again, it’s a chance for him to continue building momentum to keep his streak going and reinforce just how vital he is for us by scoring key goals on top of his usual contribution.