Pete Hanson

Fri 22 December 2023 22:10, UK

Well this certainly wasn’t in the script for Aston Villa was it?

On a club-record run of 15 straight consecutive home victories. The chance to go top of the Premier League and potentially even stay there for Christmas. A team with only two victories to their name all season visiting fortress Villa Park.

Three points easy surely? Well, hold the phone there skipper because the script writers had other ideas.

The villain (or former Villan) of the piece was Cameron Archer, whose late finish looked to have led Sheffield United to a shock 1-0 victory on Friday (22 December) before Nicolo Zaniola’s late, late intervention ensured the man who departed in the summer for a reported £18million was not the match winner.

But while one former did have something to celebrate, Villa’s current hero Ollie Watkins never really got firing against the Blades in a performance that belied how brilliant he has been this season.

Watkins can count himself unlucky in one sense, he played a brilliant ball in for Moussa Diaby to score a goal that was ruled out by VAR for a foul on visiting goalkeeper Wes Foderingham.

But, truth be told, it was not a good outing for Watkins, who was aiming to become the quickest Villa player to 50 Premier League goals. Gabriel Agbonlahor and Dwight Yorke both reached the tally, but Watkins – who now has 127 Villa top-flight appearances – would have beaten them both.

It led former Villa favourite Lee Hendrie to tell Sky Sports News before the game (22 December): “Gabby and Dwight were phenomenal players for the football club there’s no doubt about that, but there’s no arguing the fact Ollie is amongst that and the stat there, hitting 50 goals and doing it in that short space of time is brilliant.

“I compliment what Ollie Watkins has done and achieved, he’s a learner, you only have to listen to what Unai Emery has to say about him, he wants to improve every single time he goes on the training field and that’s what happens, you work hard, you get rewards, what Ollie’s done is brilliant, he’s got himself in the England set-up and he’s doing remarkable things here and he’ll go down as a Villa legend.”

One game, of course, will not change his status with the Villa fans, but Watkins struggle to penetrate a stubborn Blades defence, who were more than happy to soak up the pressure and try to counter-attack.

Admittedly, the supporting cast did not particularly help, it was one of the limpest attacking performances Villa have put in all season.

But Watkins is the man they look to for inspiration, and he mustered only a solitary shot on target, a weak effort straight at Foderingham, while he had another off target and one blocked (SofaScore).

It meant he had an expected goals return of only 0.18, a figure that you would not have expected to see before a ball was kicked on Friday.

He managed only 19 touches in the whole game and put in one cross that wasn’t accurate. He did finish the match with one key pass, but his influence was largely nullified by a stoic visiting defence.

What summed up his frustration is that he failed to win any of his four ground duels and only once of his five duels in the air. Put simply, the Blades defence did a number on the England international.

He also lost possession on six occasions during a game that Watkins just never really came to the dance.

That 50th league goal will arrive eventually and Watkins, as Hendrie said, can become considered a legend at Villa Park – he might already be.

But tonight was a bit of a flop, it’s one to forget for all involved at Aston Villa truth be told.

In other Aston Villa news, here are our player ratings from the fixture.