Aston Villa boss Unai Emery was full of praise for Ollie Watkins after our frontman played a pivotal role in our 3-1 win over Bournemouth on Sunday.
Although he couldn’t find the back of the net himself on this occasion, the 28-year-old provided two crucial assists to help us turn the game around in our favour, having fallen behind in the first half.
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That took his tallies to 19 goals and 12 assists in 33 Premier League games so far this season, 26 and 12 across all competitions in 47 outings, as Watkins has played a fundamental role in putting us in the position we’re in with just a month remaining in the campaign.
Aside from his goal contributions, the England international has been a reliable and durable presence to lead the line for us all season, and while it’s hoped that he can now finish the year with a flourish, Emery praised him on Sunday not only for the impact that he makes on the pitch, but also his mentality and determination to improve and help the team.
“He played fantastic,” he told the media in his post-match press conference. “His first objective is to win as a team and to help in everything we need tactically. In the end, when he scores it is fantastic. Even when he doesn’t score, he plays helping the team being brilliant.
“I think he’s adding more things tactically himself to feel comfortable playing as well, scoring goals, assisting and even without those circumstances playing for the team. He plays in the structure we have tactically and his commitment to do the work we always need has been fantastic – more than scoring goals and the assists.
“He’s increasing his level and showing us being very demanding in himself how he can increase the level in a lot of things, more than scoring goals. I think I appreciate him and his progress, I think other coaches and in the national team they are of course aware about him, how he’s increasing and how he’s been important for us and for the national team as well.
“As a player, he’s fantastic and he deserves it because he’s a really hard-worker every day. Always he wants to work more in the training session, he’s always very demanding, asking things to improve.”
As memorable a season it has been thus far as Emery and the players continue to give us wonderful moments and results, the job is far from done in terms of our bid to qualify for the Champions League as well as win silverware in the form of the Europa Conference League.
With just four league games remaining and hopefully three more in Europe, we’re now in the final stretch of the season, and although fatigue and injuries continue to emerge as a concern, it’s vital that we get the results we need in the coming weeks to seal this season as being one of the best in the club’s history.
Watkins has been at the forefront of that throughout as he has developed and improved significantly under Emery and his coaching staff to be more consistent in the final third to go with his relentless work ethic, and he certainly deserves all the praise that he receives, which will also hopefully come in the form of awards at the end of the campaign.