Karl Robinson wowed by ‘tremendous’ Aston Villa ace Ollie Watkins after what he did v Bournemouth
Aston Villa have a real gem on their hands in Ollie Watkins, with the striker undoubtedly one of the Premier League’s best players.
He has proven his worth time and again for the Midlands club, with the England international now on 13 goals for the season in all competitions.
A total of eight have come in the Premier League to help fire Villa into the top four, with his other five coming in the Europa Conference League.
His latest came in the form of a crucial equaliser in the dying seconds of the trip to Bournemouth on Sunday (3 December), which ended 2-2 thanks to his superb header from Moussa Diaby’s cross.
It was a goal that wowed Karl Robinson, with the pundit saying live on Sky Sports Soccer Sunday (3 December): “Out of nothing, it’s Ollie Watkins’s 13th goal of the season. He’s just scored in stoppage time, a cross from the right, it’s a tremendous header.”
Remarkably, the header represented Watkins’s 12th goal involvement in his last nine league matches (eight goals, four assists), as per the official Premier League website (3 December).
And perhaps more impressively still, it has seen him join two English top flight stars on an exclusive list, with only Watkins, Erling Haaland and Mohamed Salah scoring 20+ Premier League goals in 2023 [Squawka, 3 December].
Aston Villa manager Unai Emery may be tempted to give his star striker a rest for the clash with Manchester City on Wednesday (6 December) given the busy run of fixtures, but he simply cannot afford to.
Young understudy Jhon Duran certainly has a bright future ahead of him, but right now he is not experienced enough to trouble Pep Guardiola’s defence to the same extent that Watkins can.
The teenage striker, who has four goals this season, was handed 25 minutes against Bournemouth, but he registered just seven touches of the ball, completed just two out of four passes, and lost his only two duels [Sofascore].
In other Aston Villa news, one Villa star enjoyed an 82% stunner in the recent meeting with Legia Warsaw, with Sky Sports pundit Lee Hendrie wowed by the “unusual suspect.”