Aston Villa welcomed Arsenal to Villa Park on Saturday for what was our sixth game in 18 days, and with the West Ham match giving rise to thoughts about fatigue, the team responded perfectly to take a 1-0 victory, albeit we still seem stuck in a win, lose run of form.
Having capitalised on a defensive pass error, Bertrand Traore nicked the ball and delivered it to Ollie Watkins’ feet just 74 seconds into the game, and with the help of a deflection, our 25-year-old record signing took himself into double figures for the year.
It took Ollie Watkins 𝟯𝟮 games to reach 𝟭𝟬 League Two goals and 𝟯𝟰 games to reach 𝟭𝟬 Championship goals.
It's taken him just 𝟮𝟭 games to reach 𝟭𝟬 goals in the Premier League. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/iybf2SWah9
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) February 6, 2021
Having the lead, Arsenal had to chase, but we contained them perfectly and limited them to only three shots on target, but with the eight shots we mustered, the only complaint on the day is we didn’t win by more and close the game out completely.
It’s a nice complaint to have though isn’t it – and we also registered our first double over Arsenal since 1992/93…which was nice.
Statistics website Whoscored probably predictably gave their star man award for Man of the Match to Watkins following his goal, and I’m not saying he didn’t deserve it, but this really was a game where MotM could’ve been shared between three or four players.
Completing their top five on the day, we had Matt Targett (7.84), Emi Martinez (7.78), Jack Grealish (7.67) and Ross Barkley (7.48).
Arsenal MotM
Ollie Watkins
Matt Targett
Emi Martinez
Jack Grealish
How Tyrone Mings wasn’t in there is a little beyond me, but they had him in seventh place with 7.19, just behind Matty Cash (who also had a stellar game and would easily be in many fans’ top five) on 7.43.
They also had Marvelous Nakamba and Bertrand Traore on plus seven scores.
All eyes to some revenge against Brighton next week and hopefully ending this current win, lose run.
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