Unai Emery lauds ‘fantastic’ Aston Villa ace in surprising claim and it’s not Emi Buendia

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Aston Villa claimed their first away victory of the season in the Premier League on Sunday with a 2-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur, and it’s led Unai Emery to shower one star with praise against the odds.

Aston Villa had started the season poorly under the Spanish boss by failing to score in their first four games of the Premier League season, and it took them six games to win which provided early murmurs of a poor season.

However, consecutive home wins over Fulham and Burnley got them off the mark, and Sunday’s win over Champions League-chasing Tottenham really kicked their season into gear.

Emi Buendia will take the plaudits for his winner, as will Unai Emery for his team selection – but the Spaniard stopped to praise striker Ollie Watkins after his cameo off the bench to secure a win.

Unai Emery ‘wowed’ by Ollie Watkins performance for Aston Villa vs Tottenham

The England international has been Aston Villa’s main striker for the majority of their Premier League spell since promotion from the Championship in 2019. Watkins joined in 2020 via a £33million move from Brentford and has since been the go-to man in the West Midlands.

The talisman reached 75 Premier League strikes to become Aston Villa’s leading goalscorer in Premier League history last season, which even saw Watkins become linked with a move to Arsenal over the summer before they signed Viktor Gyokeres.

However, some poor form this season saw him dropped from the starting XI for the visit to Tottenham, only scoring one goal in his opening seven games.

Yet Emery introduced him on the hour mark and that allowed Villa to win the game, with his hold-up play being crucial to dragging Villa up the pitch and keeping the ball out of Tottenham’s reach. Speaking after the game, Emery said: “[Ollie] Watkins. He played a fantastic 30 minutes!

“He didn’t score but he was fantastic. Today I watched him. Wow! This is a better Watkins.

“Not scoring, and no assist, but he played fantastic.”

It goes to show that even if Watkins doesn’t score for Villa, he’s massively important and Emery will be over the moon that he kept the striker in the summer.

Ollie Watkins has underperformed in front of goal so far this season

It isn’t just Watkins who is struggling this season in Aston Villa’s attacking ranks. In fact, despite the club having played eight league games, their attackers have only scored in three of those fixtures.

Morgan Rogers finally got off the mark with his equaliser vs Tottenham on Sunday. He’s been on a similar trajectory to Watkins in terms of underperformance from last season.

Donyell Malen leads the goalscoring ranks with two strikes in the Premier League, though both of those came against relegation favourites Burnley at the end of September.

Watkins’ only goal was a deft lob against Fulham, but it’s not as though his competitors are thriving.

With a poor shot on target ratio with just 25 percent of his shots troubling goalkeepers in the Premier League, it means the England star hasn’t hit expectations this season, with Watkins even being praised by Virgil van Dijk as recently as last season.

Villa face three of the current top four next. Emery will be hoping Watkins can turn his form around for those visits.