Ollie Watkins proves all-round quality for Aston Villa v Burnley, BBC pundit dubbed him ‘phenomenal’ live on Final Score
Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins must be considered amongst the elites of his position on the continent after his “phenomenal” contributions against Burnley.
The Villans moved level with Premier League leaders Liverpool as a late Douglas Luiz penalty secured victory against 10-man Burnley on Saturday (30 December).
The Brazilian midfielder converted from the penalty spot in the 89th minute after Jhon Duran was fouled by former Villa player Aaron Ramsey.
Aston Villa made hard work of their task against Vincent Kompany’s men being pegged back twice after Zeki Amdouni and Lyle Foster equalisers cancelling out Leon Bailey and Moussa Diaby’s goals.
Burnley still possessed the prowess and quality to disrupt the Villans despite seeing Sander Berge sent off for a second bookable offence 11 minutes after half-time but Luiz’s emphatic penalty sealed all three points in an eventful spectacle in Birmingham.
The victory moves Villa onto 42 points and behind Liverpool only on goal difference, with the Reds set to host Newcastle United on New Year’s Day.
It was far from a perfect afternoon or even a convincing display from Aston Villa but one player proved crucial to their win at Villa Park and Emery should be shouting from the rooftops about the influence Watkins has on this team.
The Englishman left BBC pundit and former Women’s football star Farah Williams speechless live on BBC Final Score on Saturday as she was watching over developments at Villa Park, dubbing him “phenomenal” (30 December, 22:50).
She said: “Watkins has been phenomenal this afternoon, with the runs in the channel between centre-half and full-back for Aston Villa have been really good, he’s really hurt the Burnley backline and they’ve really struggled to deal with him.”
Watkins may not have got on the scoresheet against Kompany’s men, but he was integral to the win, picking up two assists in the clash for both Bailey and Diaby’s goals with two excellent passes into the box [SofaScore].
The 28-year-old only had 24 touches in the clash but managed to make every single one of them count. Eight of those came in the opposition area [Fotmob], highlighting how much Emery has improved his game by getting involved with the play closer to goal and he managed to complete 72 per cent of his 18 attempted passes.
Three of those passes managed to create chances for his teammates, meaning that 23 per cent of all of Watkins’ completed passes led to a genuine goalscoring chance for his teammates.
The Englishman sits in the 99th percentile of Premier League strikers for goal-creating actions per 90 minutes this season and the 96th for assists per game [Fbref] evidenced by his nine goals and a whopping eight assists so far this campaign – the most assists of any player in the English top-flight this season.
Amongst his peers in Europe’s top-five leagues, the readings don’t tally up to the numbers in the Premier League but his all-round game has got to make him one of the best at stretching defences and causing chaos up against teams who deploy a high line.
Watkins doesn’t create too many clear-cut chances for his teammates in a game, but when he does, they almost always lead to a goal and that ruthlessness is what makes him so difficult to defend against, it’s no wonder why Williams was left dumbfounded with his display on Saturday.
What a player.
In other Aston Villa news, a doctor delivered a new verdict on Tyrone Mings.